EQJDAVENPQRT, 
LIEUT,  COMMANOFR 

U.S.N, 


,m. SMITH 


U.  S.  S.  F.   FRANKLIN. 


A  Jflan-of-TJJar. 


SERIES  OF  NAVAL  SKETCHES, 


FRAHCIS  0.  DAVENPORT. 

UBI7T.  COMMAKDC*  D.  &  «ATT. 


How^AM^  ..  ^db.t^nejhejHBl 

She  wafts  thT^aKr"ikV"alhiBg  of  Efe! 
AmA  see»»  to  dare  the  cie^LI  to  strife 
Who  would  not  bnvc  the  battle-fee— the   wreck- 
To  mamt  the  .mairi.  of  1 


a  SMITH  &:  CO, 

:  =  7E 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1878,  by 

FRANCIS  O.  DAVENPORT, 
in  the  office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


Stereotyped  and  Printed 

by  the 
Detroit  Free  Press  Co. 


PREFACE. 


IN  submitting  this  book,  or  collection  of  letters,  to  the 
public,  I  desire  to  preface  it  with  some  appropriate  remarks. 

I  was,  truly  and  honestly,  asked  to  write  some  letters 
descriptive  of  life  on  a  man-of-war,  narratives  of  real  facts 
and  incidents  in  my  naval  career. 

With  some  diffidence — this  is  also  true — I  sent  material  for 
three  or  four  letters  to  the  office  of  the  Detroit  Free  Press, 
with  directions  to  curtail,  amend  or  suppress,  as  the  superior 
editorial  mind  should  think  proper.  To  my  surprise  and 
pleasure,  the  letters  appeared  in  full,  without  correction  or 
abbreviation. 

Upon  the  appearance  of  these  letters  from  time  to  time,  in 
the  Sunday  paper,  I  was  overwhelmed  with  compliments 
from  my  friends,  expressing  the  hope  that  the  letters  would 
be  continued.  Five  cents  for  a  paper  is  very  little,  I  know, 
and  the  sacrifice  is  still  less  when  you  borrow  the  paper.  I 
shall,  therefore,  watch  with  considerable  anxiety,  to  see  if  the 
interested  readers  of  my  single  articles  will  stand  the  test  of 
paying  one  dollar  and  a  half  for  the  entire  series  combined. 

If  my  readers — my  readers  sounds  good — take  as  much 


2031049 


pleasure  in  reading  these  letters  as  I  have  taken  in  reviving 
these  old  reminiscences,  I  shall  feel  amply  repaid  (this,  of 
course,  does  not  include  the  price  of  the  book,  one  dollar 
and  a  half,  bound  in  calf). 

As  this  volume  is  instructive,  written  ' '  to  meet  a  long  felt 
want,"  I  would  say  that  none  should  be  without  a  copy  of  it. 
To  that  end,  I  respectfully  suggest  to  my  readers— that  is,  the 
purchasers  of  my  book — not  to  lend  it,  but  to  advise  would-be 
borrowers  that  it  would  be  pure  madness  for  any  one  to  take 
any  chance  of  being  without  this  valuable  work. 


A  SCRAP  FROM  THE  D.  S.  NAVAL  ACADEMY. 


Now  1st,  ye  winds,  whDe  I  repeat 
A  puling  signal  to  the  fleet, 

Whose  station  is  at  home: 
Then  waft  a  sea-boy's  simple  prayer, 
And  be  it  oft  remembered  there 

WhDe  other  dimes  I  roam. 

Farewell  to  Father,  reverend  hoik, 
Who,  spite  of  metal,  spite  of  bulk, 

Must  soon  his  cable  slip. 
But,  e'er  he's  broken  ground,  HI  trr 
The  flag  of  gratitude  to  fly, 

In  duty  to  the  ship. 

Farewell  to  Mother,  first-class  she, 
Who  launched  me  on  life's  troubled  s«a 

And  rigged  me  fore  and  aft: 
Hay  Heaven,  to  her,  her  timbers  spare, 
And  keep  her  hull  in  good  repair, 

To  tow  the  smaller  orafL 


A  SCRAP  FKOM  THE  U.  S.  NAVAL  ACADEMY. 

Farewell  to  Sister,  lovely  yacht, 
But  whether  she'll  be  spliced  or  not, 

I  cannot  now  foresee ; 
But  may  some  craft  a  tender  prove, 
Well  found  in  stores  of  youth  and  love, 

To  take  her  under  lee. 

Farewell  to  Jack,  the  jolly  boat, 
And  all  the  little  craft  afloat 

In  home's  delightful  bay; 
When  they  arrive  at  sailing  age, 
Some  trusty  pilot  may  engage, 

To  get  them  under  weigh. 

Farewell  to  all  on  life's  wide  main., 
We  ne'er  perchance  may  meet  again, 

Thro'-  stress  of  stormy  weather; 
Till,  summoned  by  the  Board  above, 
We'll  anchor  in  the  Port  of  Love, 

And  all  be  moored  together. 


ON  A  MAN-OF-WAR. 


"  The  seaman,  safe  on  shore,  with  joy  doth  tell 
What  cruel  dangers  *""*  at  sea  befelL" 


LETTER  L 

DETAILS    OF   FITTING    OUT    A  SHIP  FOR  A  CRUISE THE 

OFFICERS  AND  CREW THE  ARMAMENT THE  EVO- 
LUTIONS  A  CALL  TO  THE  MAINMAST THE  WATCH- 
ES  THE  BOATS'  CREWS IN  COMMISSION THE  LOG. 

My  Dear  Fellow — You  have  often  asked  me  to  give 
you  some  idea  of  the  general  routine  on  board  an 
American  man-of-war,  and  I  know  of  no  better  way 
than  to  jot  down  my  actual  experience  in  the  fitting 
out  of  a  ship  from  a  navy  yard. 

On  the  9th  of  June  I  was  suddenly  detached  from 
the  United  States  Naval  Academy  by  the  following 
order  : 

You  are  hereby  detached  from  the  Naval  Academy,  and 
you  will  proceed  to  Boston,  Massachusetts,  without  delay, 
and  report  to  Rear  Admiral  Stringham  for  duty  on  board  the 

U.  8.  S. ,  second  rate. 

I  am  very  respectfully  your  obedient  servant, 

GIDEON  WELLES, 

Secretary  of  the  Navy. 
To  Lieut. ,  United  States  Navy. 

I  arrived  at  the  navy  yard  and  presented  myself  at 
the  commandant's  office  at  10  A.  M.  to  report,  and 
being  provided  by  the  friendly  clerk  in  the  office  with 


10  ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR. 

the  objectionable  uniform  cap,  invented  by  one  of 
the  old  Admirals,  and  only  worn  when  one  was  afraid 
not  to  wear  it,  I  entered  the  Admiral's  sanctum  to 
introduce  myself  and  get  his  indorsement  on  my 
orders  that  I  had  so  reported. 

You  see,  my  dear  boy,  that  the  paymaster  pays 
according  to  your  "  orders,"  and  until  I  reported  1 
was  on  "  leave  "  pay,  whereas  as  soon  as  I  reported  I 
became  entitled  to  "  other  duty  "  pay,  which  is  twenty 
per  cent  higher.  As  soon  as  the  ship  is  put  in  com- 
mission the  officers  are  entitled  to  "  sea  pay,"  which 
is  still  higher. 

After  reporting  I  went  at  once  to  the  ship,  which 
was  moored  at  the  wharf  and  filled  with  carpenters 
and  riggers  busily  engaged  fitting  the  ship  for  sea. 
The  ship  is  in  the  hands  of  the  navy  yard  officers 
until  she  is  put  in  commission  and  is  turned  over  to 
the  commanding  officer  of  the  ship  in  the  presence  of 
his  officers  and  crew,  at  that  time  complete  and  ready 
for  sea.  Until  this  ceremony  takes  place  the  officers 
of  the  ship  have  no  authority  on  board,  the  employes 
of  the  yard  getting  their  orders  from  the  officers 
attached  to  the  navy  yard  only,  and  not  from  the 
officers  of  the  ship. 

The  various  officers,  on  reporting  for  duty  to  the 
commander,  are,  however,  directed  to  report  on  board 
daily,  and  watch  that  their  various  departments  are 


OS    A    MAX-OF-WAK-  11 

being  properly  supplied  by  the  authorities  of  the 
yard. 

The  first  lieutenant  or  executive  officer,  has  a  gen- 
eral superintendence,  and  conveys  the  wishes  of  the 
commander  of  the  vessel  to  the  junior  officers.  The 
second  lieutenant,  who  is  ordnance  officer  and  navi- 
gator, assisted  by  the  gunner,  and  by  bis  signal  quar- 
termaster, looks  after  the  storage  of  the  shell  rooms, 
shot  lockers  and  the  various  chronometers,  compasses, 
sextants,  lead  bines,  etc.,  belonging  to  the  navigator. 

A  certain  allowance  of  seamen,  ordinary  seamen, 
landsmen  and  boys  is  detailed  from  the  receiving  ship 
as  a  crew  for  the  vessel  fitting  out,  and  every  officer, 
who  is  interested,  visits  the  receiving  ship  to  find  out  if 
there  is  some  particular  one  that  he  wants,  and  works 
wires  as  best  he  can  to  get  his  choice  included  in  the 
list  finally  detailed  to  the  ship. 

The  captain  is  on  the  lookout  for  a  good  cook  and 
steward;  so  also  is  the  caterer  of  the  ward  room 
mess,  the  steerage  mess,  and  the  warrant  officers* 
mess;  and  as  the  pay  is.  higher  in  the  order  men- 
tioned, the  quality  is  generally  the  same. 

When  the  ship  is  quite  ready  the  crew  is  sent  on 
board,  and  all  hands  being  assembled  on  the  quarter 
deck  the  flag  is  hoisted  at  the  peak  and  the  pennant 
to  the  main  truck,  and  the  ship  formally  turned  over 


ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR. 

to  its  commander  by  the  commandant  of  the  yard, 
and  the  ship  is  in  "  commission." 

The  executive  officer  at  once  organizes  the  crew, 
dividing  the  men  into  two  watches — starboard  and 
port  watch,  so  many  men  as  forecastlemen,  foretop- 
men,  maintopmen,  mizzentopmen  and  afterguards. 

The  forecastlemen  do  duty  from  the  foremast  for- 
ward; the  foretopmen,  aloft  and  on  port  side  from 
foremast  to  mainmast;  the  maintopmen,  aloft  and  on 
starboard  side  from  foremast  to  mainmast;  miz/cn- 
topmen,  aloft  and  on  port  side  from  mainmast  aft; 
and  afterguards  on  starboard  side  aft. 

A  foretopman  would  look  with  pitying  contempt 
on  a  young  officer  who  directed  him  to  "squilgee 
down  "  in  the  starboard  gangway,  and  would  call  one 
of  the  maintopmen  to  look  out  for  his  own  part  of 
the  ship.  One  of  our  admirals  was  ordered  out  to 
take  command  of  the  Mediterranean  squadron,  and, 
upon  coming  on  board  the  flagship,  was  met  at  the 
gangway  by  an  old  classmate  (the  one  he  was  to 
relieve)  with  the  salutation,  "  Hallo,  old  fellow,  how 
are  you  ?"  and  observing  that  the  Admiral  had  care- 
fully combed  his  back  hair  forward  up  and  over  to 
cover  the  bald  top  of  his  head,  added,  "  "Well,  that's 
the  first  time  I  ever  saw  afterguard  doing  foretop 
duty." 

The   executive   officer   selects  from  the   crew  the 


ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR.  13 

petty  officers  as  allowed  by  the  allowance  book.  I 
had  fifty  to  choose.  One  master  at  arms,  who  is 
chief  of  police,  and  in  charge  of  berth  deck;  two 
ship's  corporals,  aids  to  master  at  arms;  four  cox- 
swains; two  captains  of  the  forecastle;  two  captains 
of  the  foretop;  two  captains  of  the  maintop,  mizzen 
and  afterguard;  two  boatswain's  mates,  one  gunner's 
mate,  four  quarter  gunners,  etc.  When  the  list  is 
made  out  the  captain  approves  and  directs  the  pay- 
master to  take  them  up  on  his  books  according  to  the 
pay  of  their  respective  offices.  A  seaman  gets  $18 
a  month  and  his  ration,  while  the  petty  officers  get 
$20,  $24  and  even  $30,  and  in  steamers  the  machinists 
get,  I  think,  $76.50  a  month. 

The  crew  is  then  stationed  for  every  evolution,  and 
each  man  can  find  his  station  by  bis  hammock  num- 
ber, displayed  in  some  suitable  place  framed  for  their 
inspection.  As  each  man  has  to  be  stationed  for 
"getting  under  weigh,"  "bringing  ship  to  an  an- 
chor," "  tacking  ship,"  "  wearing  ship,"  "  loosing  and 
furling,"  "  reefing  topsails,"  "  in  and  out  boats,"  "  up 
and  down  topgallant  and  royal  yards,"  etc.,  it  is  no 
small  piece  of  work  to  watch  and  station  a  crew  of 
500  men.  Then  the  crew  has  to  be  "  quartered,"  or 
stationed  at  the  guns.  Our  ship  had  twenty-two 
guns  on  the  gun  deck — ten  nine-inch  forming  the 
first  division,  in  charge  of  the  third  lieutenant,  and 


14  ON    A.    MAN-OF-WAR. 

twelve  long  thirty-two's,  forming  the  second  division, 
in  charge  of  the  fourth  lieutenant;  eight  thirty-two's 
on  the  quarter  deck,  four  thirty-two's  forward,  with  a 
hundred-pounder  rifled  Parrot  on  the  forecastle  and 
another  aft. 

The  navigator  had  charge  of  the  powder  division, 
passing  the  different  cylinders  or  cartridges  for  the 
guns  of  the  various  calibers. 

The  captain  is  stationed  where  he  chooses,  gener- 
ally on  the  bridge,  and  the  executive  by  his  side,  or 
where  he  can  see  the  best  and  make  himself  heard. 

I  then  assigned  the  different  crews  to  the  eight 
boats.  This  is  a  very  nice  operation,  as  you  want 
the  best  men,  who  generally  pull  the  best  oar,  and  if 
you  take  too  many  from  one  part  of  the  ship  you  are 
soon  notified  that  Brown,  the  "  captain  of  the  fore- 
castle," is  at  the  mast  and  wishes  to  speak  to  the  first 
lieutenant.  (The  mainmast  is  the  tribunal  of  justice 
on  board  a  man-of-war,  and  a  man  at  the  mast  must 
be  attended  to.) 

"  If  you  please,  sir,  we  didn't  have  but  two  men, 
starboard  watch,  this  morning  to  wash  decks." 

"Two!     Why  not?" 

"Why,  there's  four  gigsmen,  and  they  was  to 
sleep  in  till  six  bells "  (the  captain  was  out  till  one 
o'clock),  "  and  there  was  one  in  the  dingey  (market 
boat),  and  Smith  he's  cook  of  the  mess,  Flattery  is 


ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR.  15 

on  the  list  (sick  list),  and  Tom  Scott  didn't  come  off 
last  night  in  the  ten  o'clock  boat.  I  wish,  sir,  you'd 
give  us  a  man  for  sweeper,  sir.  That  Jones,  sir,  ain't 
fit  for  captain  of  the  head,  sir." 

If  I  promised  him  a  man  from  the  main  top  you 
can  depend  upon  it  I  heard  from  the  "  captain  of 
the  maintop  "  right  away. 

The  captains  of  the  tops  and  coxswains  of  boats 
are  petty  tyrants  and  exact  the  most  implicit  obedi- 
ence from  their  inferiors. 

The  flag  is  hoisted  at  8  A.  M.  in  summer  and  at  9 
A.  M.  in  winter  at  the  peak  of  the  spanker,  and  should 
always  be  taut  or  close  up  to  the  peak.  The  pen- 
nant should  never  be  hauled  down,  as  it  is  the  desig- 
nating mark  of  a  ship  in  commission,  and  when  the 
long  day  pennant  is  changed  at  sunset  for  the  short 
night  pennant  the  latter  is  sent  up  in  a  ball  and  the 
stop  broken  as  the  other  comes  down.  I  have  heard 
an  irascible  old  captain  "  holler "  at  a  quartermaster 
for  neglecting  this  ceremony,  saying,  "  D — n  your 
eyes,  do  you  want  to  put  the  ship  out  of  commission, 
sir  ?"  The  Union  Jack,  white  stars  on  a  blue  field,  is 
hoisted  on  a  flag-staff  stepped  on  the  bowsprit  cap, 
and  is  displayed  at  the  same  time  with  the  "  colors," 
and  like  them  hauled  down  at  sunset.  During  a 
funeral  ceremony  the  colors  are  half-masted  or  low- 
ered about  one-third  the  way  down,  and  I  heard  the 


16  ON   A   MAN-OF-WAR. 

captain  one  day,  coming  on  board  and  observing  the 
halliards  slacked  down  about  two  inches  go  for  the 
officer  of  the  deck  with  the  sarcastic  question, 

"  Anybody  dead,  sir  ?" 

Whereupon  the  officer  of  the  deck  turned  hastily 
to  the  quartermaster  with: 

"  Get  a  pull  of  those  peak  halliards  there." 

After  a  ship  is  put  in  commission  the  watches  are 
at  once  organized,  the  starboard  watch  being  on  four 
hours  and  then  the  port  watch,  the  watch  from  4  to  8 
p.  M.  being  subdivided  into  the  dog  watches  from 
4  to  6  and  6  to  8  in  order  to  produce  rotation,  other- 
wise one  watch  would  have  the  "  eight  hours  out," 
8  P.  M.  to  12  and  4  to  8  A.  M.,  and  the  other  the  "mid 
watch,"  12  to  4  A.  M.,  every  night.  In  harbor  an 
"  anchor  watch  "  only  is  kept,  being  "  one  or  two  men 
from  each  part  of  the  ship,"  as  may  be  directed  by 
the  captain. 

There  are  generally  four  watch  officers,  lieuten- 
ants, masters,  ensigns  and  even  midshipmen,  accord- 
ing to  the  size  of  the  ship,  the  number  of  officers 
and  the  liberality  of  the  commander  in  giving  the 
youngsters  a  chance  to  work  ship  and  stand  a  watch. 

In  large  ships  the  midshipmen  go  in  charge  of 
boats,  carry  messages  to  other  ships,  stand  a  watch 
on  the  forecastle  at  sea,  attend  to  heaving  the  log, 
taking  the  temperature  and  making  the  entries  on 


ON   A^MAN-OF-WAR.  17 

the  log  slate  of  barometer,  direction  of  wind,  state  of 
weather,  the  proportion  of  sky  clear,  etc. 

The  officer  of  the  deck  is  an  important  personage. 
He  gives  every  order  that  is  given  on  deck,  directed, 
of  course,  by  the  captain  or  first  lieutenant.  He  is 
responsible  for  the  cleanliness  of  the  ship,  that  the 
routine  is  carried  on  and  the  general  duty  during  his 
four  hours'  watch.  He  makes  and  takes  in  sail,  sends 
away  boats  and  directs  the  disposition  of  them  on 
their  return,  and  everybody  goes  to  the  officer  of  the 
deck  for  everything.  At  the  end  of  his  watch  he 
writes  up  his  remarks  opposite  the  tabular  statement 
written  up  by  the  midshipman  somewhat  as  follows: 

At  Sea,  August  24th,  1870. 

"  Commenced  clear  and  pleasant  with  light  south- 
erlv  breezes,  sky  cirro  cumulus,  ship  under  plain  sail. 
At  2.30  A.  M.  wind  veered  to  northward  and  eastward, 
overcast  and  cloudy,  with  occasional  squalls;  took  in 
royals,  hauled  down  flying  jib.  At  three  single  reefed 
topsails  and  changed  course  to  northwest.  F.  L.  W." 

The  log  slate  is  copied  into  the  log  book  and  signed 
by  the  officer  every  day.  The  log  book  also  shows 
how  many  sticks  of  wood  were  served  out  to  the 
cooks  and  also  how  many  gallons  of  water,  with 
the  balance  on  hand.  The  engineer's  log  shows  how 
many  pounds  of  coal  have  been  burned  and  how  much 


18  ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR. 

is  left  on  hand.  We  had  tanks  carrying  40,000  gal- 
lons of  water,  and  I  drank  some  of  the  water  when 
we  returned  to  Boston  one  year  after  it  had  been  put 
in.  and  it  was  sweet  and  pure. 


ON   A   MAN-OF-WAK,  19 


LETTER  IL 

HOW  A  VESSEL  GETS  UNDER  WEIGH AT.T.  HANDS  LOOSE 

SAIL ALOFT    SAIL    LOOSEBS BRINGING    THE    SHIP 

TO  ANCHOR. 

In  my  last  letter  I  explained  substantially  the  fit- 
ting out  of  a  man-of-war  from  the  navy  yard,  so 
now,  if  you  are  interested,  I  will  endeaver  to  give 
you  some  idea  of  the  routine  of  a  ship  in  commission. 

The  next  morning  after  the  ceremony  of  putting 
the  ship  in  commission,  the  captain  gave  me  orders 
to  get  the  ship  under  weigh,  under  sail  at  2  p.  M.  and 
go  down  the  harbor  to  an  anchorage.  Of  course  I 
was  nervous.  I  was  only  twenty-two  years  old,  and 
felt  that  there  were  some  things  about  a  ship  that 
I  did  not  know;  besides,  when  I  stood  upon  the 
bridge,  I  felt  so  small  and  the  ship  looked  so  infernal 
long,  that  I  determined  at  once  that  the  only  way  to 
run  the  ship  at  all  was  to  claim  the  privilege  of  doing 
all  the  talking  myself.  Even  on  shore,  you  know, 
there  is  a  general  tendency  for  every  one  to  suggest 
how  to  do  it;  "they  all  do  it." 

In  one  of  Marrvat's  stories,  he  describes  the  getting 
under  weigh  of  a  small  schooner,  officered  by  some 
immense  men,  where  Lieut.  B.,  leveling  a  long  trum- 
pet at  the  officer  of  the  forecastle,  hailed  him  in  pon- 


20  ON    A    MAN-OF-WAK. 

derous  tones:  "  Are  you  ready,  sir  ?  "  and  was  answered 
in  a  deafening  shout  of  "Aye,  aye,  sir,"  by  that 
doughty  officer,  who  at  the  same  time  was  so  close  to 
him  that  he  nearly  blew  him  off  his  feet.  But  here  I 
had  a  clear  space  of  about  175  feet  to  "holler"  in, 
and  if  the  boats'n's  mates  whistled  and  people  shouted 
as  I  had  heard  them  do  on  some  other  ships,  I  knew 
that  I  would  stand  no  chance  of  making  myself  heard 
at  all. 

I  had  watched,  quartered,  and  stationed  the  ship's 
crew  for  everything,  but  still  wondered  if  I  had  not 
forgotten  something.  Perhaps  when  I  gave  the 
order  to  "frow  de  ank,"  de  ank  might  have  no 
rope  to  it.  The  experience  of  a  classmate  of  mine 
did  not  reassure  me,  for  xinder  precisely  similar  cir- 
cumstances when  he  gave  the  order,  "  Aloft,  sail-loos- 
ers,"  he  said  every  mother's  son  of  'em  went  aloft, 
and  he  found  he  had  forgotten  to  station  any  men  at 
the  clew-jiggers  and  buntlines  on  deck,  so  he  had  to 
call  them  down  and  start  anew. 

Well!  all  the  navy  yard  people,  including  some 

rather  pretty  girls,  came  down  to  see  the  S get 

under  weigh;  so  I  marched  into  the  cabin,  and  swal- 
lowing a  lump  in  my  throat  I  said  boldly: 

"I  will  get  under  weigh,  sir,  if  you  please." 

The  captain  smiled  a  little  and  said,  "  Certainly, 
Mr. ,  whenever  you  are  ready." 


ON   A   MAN-OF-WAR.  21 

So,  having  no  other  excuse  for  delay,  I  said  to  the 
officer  of  the  deck: 

"Well,  sir,  I  will  relieve  you;  we  will  get  under 
weigh." 

As  we  were  fast  to  the  wharf,  there  was  no  anchor 
to  raise,  so  I  sent  a  messenger  boy  to  the  boatswain, 
"  All  hands  loose  sail,"  and  soon  I  heard  his  pipe  fol- 
lowed by  a  second  from  his  mate  and  third  from  an- 
other mate,  and  then  altogether  rising  higher  and 
higher  and  falling,  this  twice  repeated  and  then  the 
hoarse  cry,  "Loose  sail,"  "loose  sail,"  "loose  sail." 
I  could  hear  the  master  at  arms  on  the  berth  deck: 
"  Look  alive  there  now,  tumble  up  there,  on  deck  there 
everybody;  loose  sail  " — until  I  thought  I  had  lost  all 
the  sail  I  wanted  to.  The  men  all  quickly  went,  each 
to  the  place  assigned  him,  the  officers  all  took  their 
stations,  one  on  the  forecastle,  one  in  each  gangway 
and  one  aft,  all  curiously  looking  up  to  see  how  the 
executive  would  work  ship.  I  felt  a  little  relieved  to 
see  that  they  all  seemed  to  be  about  where  I  had  seen 
them  in  other  ships,  when  I  was  a  junior,  and  I  hoped 
that  I  had  made  no  mistakes;  and  with  the  feeling 
that  I  should  not  be  surprised  if  the  mainmast  with 
all  its  heavy  rigging  should  suddenly  tumble  over- 
board, I  put  up  my  trumpet  and  gave  my  first  order 
on  that  eventful  cruise: 

"  Aloft,  sail-loosers.     Man  the  boom  tricing  lines." 


22  ON    A    MAN-OF-WAK. 

And  then,  with  ^  caution  to  the  men  to  keep  in  the 
slings  of  the  yard  until  ordered  out: 

"Trice  up  —  lay  out  and  loose.  Man  the  topsail 
sheets  and  halliards — let  fall;  sheet  home,  down  booms, 
lay  down  from  aloft.  Hoist  away  the  topsails." 

The  shrill  whistle  of  the  boatswains'  mates  and  the 
prompt  obedience  to  my  orders  soon  restored  my  con- 
fidence, and  as  we  let  go  our  lines  and  hoisted  jib,  the 
old  frigate  payed  off  from  the  wharf  and  stood  beau- 
tifully down  the  harbor,  the  band  playing  and  friends 
waving  and  cheering  on  the  wharf.  I  was  so  de- 
lighted that  at  a  nod  from  the  captain  I  gave  the 
order: 

"  Stand  by  to  man  the  port  rigging  and  give  three 
cheers.  Lay  up — cheer — lay  down." 

So  you  see  that  even  when  we  cheer  on  board  ship 
we  have  to  do  it  by  rule. 

We  sailed  down  the  harbor  with  a  fair  wind,  under 
topsails,  jib  and  spanker  until  near  where  we  intended 
to  anchor.  Then  the  word  was  passed  with  the  same 
ceremony,  and  whistling  "  Bring  ship  to  anchor," 
the  men  went  to  their  stations.  The  two  men  who 
were  to  let  go  the  7,000  pound  anchor  looked  to  see  if 
the  trip  stoppers  were  all  ready;  the  compressers 
were  hove  back  to  allow  the  chain  to  run  freely  from 
the  chain  lockers;  the  topsail  clews  were  stoppered 
and  the  sheets  unhooked,  and  the  order  given :  "  Man 


OH    A    IIAX-OF-WAX.  23 

the  topsail,  clew  jiggers  and  buntlines;  jib  downhaul; 
1  lands  by  the  sheets  and  halliards;  haul  taut;  shorten 
saiL" 

Up  went  the  clew  jiggers,  down  came  the  heavy 
yards  on  to  the  caps,  quick  hands  squaring  the  yards 
as  they  came  down,  down  went  the  helm,  and  as  soon 
as  she  lost  headway  came  the  order: 

"Stand  clear  of  the  starboard  chain — let  go  the 
starboard  anchor." 

And  the  ship  was  riding  quietly  head  to  wind,  and 
I  was  able  to  "  pipe  down  "  and  turn  the  deck  over  to 
the  regular  officer  of  the  watch,  to  clear  up  the  gear 
and  go  to  supper. 


24  ON  A   MAN-OF-WAR. 

LETTER  in. 

"  ALL     HANDS    CALLED  "  —  A    DAY    ON    SHIPBOARD  — 

TWELVE  O'CLOCK,  "  MAKE  IT  SO  " "  A  MAN  AT  THE 

MAST  " THE  STORY  OF  WILLIAM  TRUSTY HOW  HE 

GOT  RELIGION  OFF  OF  JIMMY  DAGGS. 

At  daylight  the  next  morning  "all  hands  were 
called,"  hammocks  piped  up,  lashed  neatly  and  stowed 
in  the  hammock  nettings  which  run  round  the  rail  of 
the  ship,  protected  from  the  weather  by  painted  can- 
vass hammock  cloths,  hauled  over  when  the  ham- 
mocks are  all  in,  and  stopped  down  securely.  The 
market  boat  was  sent  ashore  with  the  various  stew- 
ards of  the  different  messes,  and  the  order  passed  to 
"wash  decks."  At  7.15  A.  M.  the  decks  were  thor- 
oughly cleaned  and  the  ship  scrubbed  inside  and  out. 
The  mess  cloths  were  then  spread,  and  at  seven  bells 
(7.30  A.  M.)  "  piped  to  breakfast."  I  then  relieved  the 
officer  of  the  deck  to  dress,  so  that  when  the  officer 
of  the  forenoon  watch  came  on  at  8.30,  having  fin- 
ished breakfast,  the  other  would  be  able  to  sit  down 
to  his  own,  and  not  delay  the  ward  room  boys,  mak- 
ing them  late  to  "  quarters." 

At  this  time  the  executive  officer  receives  the  re- 
ports of  the  gunner,  carpenter,  boatswain  and  sail- 
maker,  all  warrant  officers  drawing  pay  at  from 


ON    A    MAX-OF-WAB  25 

$1,200  to  $1,800  per  annum.  The  gunner  reports 
"  the  battery  secure,"  and  suggests  work  for  the  day 
in  his  department;  the  carpenter  asks  which  of  the 
numerous  things  he  shall  do  first  (he  has  two  mates 
and  never  catches  up  with  his  work  during  the  cruise) ; 
there's  a  hole  stove  in  the  second  cutter,  the  garboard 
streak  of  the  launch  wants  calking,  one  of  the  gigs- 
men  broke  an  oar  and  he  must  cut  over  one  to  fit,  etc. ; 
the  sailmaker  reports  a  chafe  in  the  maintopsail  and 
asks  if  he  can  have  it  unbent  and  sent  down,  and  re- 
luctantly admits  that  it  might  be  repaired  aloft;  the 
boatswain  reports  that  he  has  been  over  the  ship  from 
the  end  of  the  flying  jibboom  to  the  tip  of  the 
spanker,  that  all  is  in  order,  only  a  few  new  ratlines 
wanted  in  the  topmast  rigging,  a  little  chafe  in  the 
eyes  of  the  rigging,  foremast  head,  and,  if  you  give 
him  time,  he'll  make  a  list  that  would  take  three 
months  to  complete. 

Five  minutes  before  8  A.  M.  eight  bells  is  reported 
to  the  commander,  who  may  direct  that  the  topgal- 
lant and  royal  yards  be  crossed,  or  sails  loosed,  or 
some  similar  evolution  be  executed  with  the  hoisting 
of  the  colors  at  8  A.  *.  If  yards  are  to  be  crossed 
"  all  hands  are  called,"  the  yards  sent  up,  and  at  the 
third  roll  of  the  drum  the  yards  swing  across,  the 
colors  rise  to  the  peak,  the  pennant  changes  from 
short  to  long  pennant,  the  Jack  is  hoisted  forward  at 


26  ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR. 

bowsprit  cap,  the  bell  strikes  eight  times,  the  band 
plays,  the  boats  to  be  used  during  the  day  are  low- 
ered from  the  davits,  and  all  at  once  you  can  imagine 
a  Babel  of  sounds,  but  in  a  well  disciplined  ship  there 
is  no  confusion,  and  comparatively  little  noise,  beyond 
the  shrill  whistles  of  the  boatswain  and  mates,  which, 
by  their  modulations,  indicate  "  lower  away,"  "  hoist," 
*  belay,"  and  "  veer,"  so  that  orders  by  voice  are  not 
actually  necessary. 

Sometimes  in  addition  to  all  the  above,  sails  are 
loosed,  and  it  tasks  an  officer  to  the  utmost  to  see 
that  all  goes  on  well  and  at  once. 

At  9.3Q  the  drum  beats  to  quarters,  whereupon 
every  man  repairs  to  his  station  at  the  gun,  or  particu- 
lar place  assigned  him.  The  officer  of  the  division 
inspects  his  division  with  their  arms  and  accoutre- 
ments to  see  if  they  are  clean  and  tidy,  and  that  the 
"  bright  work  "  is  properly  burnished  for  inspection, 
reporting  the  condition  to  the  executive  officer,  who, 
in  turn,  reports  to  the  commander.  If  that  officer 
expresses  his  desire  to  inspect  the  ship  he  walks  past 
the  various  divisions,  who  salute  with  the  weapons 
with  which  they  are  armed,  the  powder  boys  sol- 
emnly bringing  the  priming  wires,  which  they  have 
to  clean,  to  a  "  present;  "  and,  accompanied  by  the  exe- 
cutive officer,  peers  into  every  nook  and  corner,  inter- 


ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR.  27 

spersing  the  general  denunciation  with  an  occasional 
word  of  commendation,  or  vice  versa. 

When  Admiral  Porter  and  others  inspected  this 
same  ship  they  crawled  into  the  magazines  and  visited 
all  the  store-rooms,  and  asked  me  suddenly: 

"  What  hatch  is  this,  sir  ?  " 

"  The  block  room,  sir." 

"  Please  open  it." 

When  the  hatch  was  taken  off,  and  the  combings 
appeared  clean  and  whitewashed,  they  winked  at  each 
other,  and  had  another  obscure  one  lifted  to  see  if 
there  was  any  neglect. 

I  have  heard  of  an  austere  first  lieutenant  who  wa* 
seen  to  lift  one  of  the  shell  boxes  from  its  rack  on  the 
gun-deck  and  mark  it  with  his  lead-pencil  before  re- 
placing it,  "  to  see  if  those  negligent  rascals  would 
scour  it  out  when  they  holystoned  decks." 

After  "  quarters  "  there  is  generally  an  exercise  at 
great  guns,  boats,  yards  and  sails,  manual  of  arms, 
broadswords,  howitzer  drill,  or  something  of  the  kind, 
after  which  the  ten  o'clock  boat  is  called  away,  and 
those  who  have  permission  go  ashore,  the  boat 
shoving  off  at  the  stroke  of  the  bell  by  order  of  the 
officer  of  the  deck,  so  that  those  who  are  not  on  hand 
lose  their  passage  and  cannot  get  another  boat  until 
1  P.  M. 

During  the  forenoon  the  work  of  the  ship  occupies 


28  ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR. 

every  man  on  board,  the  executive  officer  is  busy  in 
consultation  with  his  staff  of  workmen  as  before  de- 
scribed, the  various  orders  being  executed  according 
to  rule  and  system. 

For  example,  the  gunner  at  7.30  gets  permission  of 
the  executive  officer  to  scrape  and  relacquer  No.  2  gun, 
first  division.  When  ready,  about  10.30  A.  M.  he  goes 
to  the  officer  of  the  deck  and  states  his  authority,  the 
latter  sends  a  messenger  boy  to  the  officer  of  the  first 
division,  who  comes  up  and  requests  that  the  officer 
of  the  deck  will  have  No.  2  gun's  crew  called  to  quar- 
ters, upon  this  the  gun  and  crew  are  turned  over  to 
the  gunner  to  do  as  he  desires.  When  he  has  finished 
what  he  wished  to  do,  he  secures  the  gun  and  reports 
the  fact  to  the  officer  of  the  deck. 

At  seven  bells  (11.30  A.  M.),  all  work  ceases,  sweep- 
ers are  piped  and  "  a  clean  sweep  down  fore  and  aft " 
ordered;  the  mess  cloths  are  spread,  the  ship's  cook 
brings  a  sample  of  the  bean  soup  or  the  boiled  fresh 
or  salt  beef  to  the  mast  for  inspection,  and  if  ap- 
proved he  is  ordered  to  "  serve  it  out."  At  noon  the 
officer  of  the  deck  reports  to  the  captain — "  12  o'clock, 
sir" — and  is  ordered  to  "make  it  so."  Eight  bells  is 
struck  and  the  boatswain  and  mates  pipe  to  dinner. 
If  at  sea  the  navigator  comes  up  before  12  to  take 
observation  for  latitude,  and  if  in  port  he  takes — a 
drink  instead. 


OX    A   MAX-OF-WAK.  29 

An  Irishman  happening  to  hear  the  officer  of  the 
deck  send  the  orderly  to  report  twelve  o'clock  to  the 
captain,  at  once  remarked,  "  Bedad  Fd  like  to  be  a 
captain;  all  he  has  to  do  is  just  to  sit  in  the  cabin  and 
they  say,  '  Eight  bells,  sir,'  and  he  says,  '  Strike  it,' 
says  he." 

At  one  P.  M.  the  "  hands  are  turned  to,"  and  the  1 
o'clock  boat  sent  ashore;  work  goes  on  as  before  un- 
til 3.30  P.  M.,  when  the  decks  are  swept,  and  supper 
piped  at  4  p.  M.  While  the  crew  are  at  meals  a  red 
"  meal  pennant "  is  displayed  at  the  mkzen  truck  or 
at  the  crossjack  yard  arm  to  warn  outsiders  that  the 
men  are  not  to  be  disturbed. 

At  "  sunset "  the  evening  boat  returns,  the  colors 
are  hauled  down,  with  beat  of  drum  and  pipe,  and 
the  crew  are  called  to  evening  quarters,  which  is  sim- 
ply a  muster  to  see  if  everybody  is  accounted  for. 

About  six  bells  (7  P.  M.),  hammocks  are  piped. 
"All  hands  stand  by  your  hammocks:"  the  men 
stand  in  line  abreast  of  the  netting  where  their  ham- 
mocks are  stowed,  and  at  the  order  "  lay  up "  and 
"uncover"  the  men  detailed  as  hammock  stowers 
swing  themselves  up  and  throw  back  the  cloths: 
"  pipe  down "  is  followed  by  the  cries  of  the  eight 
stowers  calling  the  numbers,  "  16,"  "  8,"  "  44,"  etc., 
and  "13,"  "17,"  "93,"  etc.,  odd  numbers  being  in 


30  ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR. 

starboard  watch,  even  numbers  port  watch,  and 
stowed  accordingly. 

I  fear  to  weary  you  by  too  much  detail,  and  if  I 
become  tedious  you  must  warn  me.  I  simply  en- 
deavor to  show  you  that  absolutely  nothing  is  done 
on  board  a  man-of-war  except  by  order,  and  the 
watchful  care  and  supervision  of  the  officers  of  a  ship 
are  exercised  constantly,  or  the  ship  becomes  uninhab- 
itable. 

For  example,  at  certain  hours  only,  the  men  are 
allowed  to  go  to  their  bags,  which  contain  their  cloth- 
ing and  which  are  stowed  on  the  berth  deck,  under 
the  supervision  of  the  master-at-arms.  Were  it  not 
for  this,  thievery  would  be  more  prevalent  than  it  is, 
and  the  first  lieutenant  would  be  kept  constantly 
employed  as  a  detective  to  punish  offenders. 

One  day  the  officer  of  the  deck  sent  me  word  "  that 
there  was  a  man  at  the  mast."  Upon  investigation  I 
found  that  some  one  had  stolen  his  shirt — "  a  bran 
new  shirt,  sir,  with  my  ship's  number  marked  on  back 
of  collar,  sir,  according  to  regulation,  sir." 

I  at  once  turned  to  the  master-at-arms  and  said 

"Send  William  Trusty  here." 

Trusty  had  once  been  a  ward  room  boy,  and  while 
hovering  round  the  paymaster,  who  was  writing  with 
the  safe  open  behind  him,  he  had  possessed  himself 
of  two  twenty-dollar  greenbacks.  He  might  as  well 


ON   A   MAN-OF-WAR.  31 

have  stolen  an  elephant,  for  on  the  blockade,  where 
we  then  were,  there  was  no  opportunity  to  spend  it, 
and  he  carried  the  bills  around  in  his  cap  for  two 
months  "  fearing  each  bush  an  officer."  One  unhappy 
day  the  officer  of  the  deck  accosted  him  rather 
abruptly,  and  Trusty,  taking  off  his  cap  in  his  bewil- 
derment, the  bills  escaped  and  wafted  hither  and 
thither  by  the  breeze,  finally  lodging  in  the  lee  scupper, 
followed  in  their  flight  by  the  curious  eyes  of  the  officer 
and  the  horrified  ones  of  the  unhappy  Trusty. 

"Well,  Trusty  got  thirty  days,  bread  and  water,  in 
double  irons,  and  three  months'  loss  of  pay,  by  a  sen- 
tence of  a  summary  court-martial,  but  he  never 
reformed,  and  here  he  was  again. 

Upon  his  arrival  at  the  mast  I  said: 

"  Trusty,  where  is  this  man's  shirt  ?  " 

With  the  countenance  of  a  dusky  angel,  and  the 
honest,  truthful  eye  of  innocence,,  he  replied  as  fol- 
lows : 

"Mr.  D.,  I  know  very  well  that  I  have  done  many 
wrong  things  while  on  boai'd  this  ship,  that  I  have 
stolen  things,  and  that  I  have  been  guilty  of  false- 
hood on  many  occasions;  but  now,  sir,  everything  is 
different.  I  have  become  a  different  boy,  sir,  and 
shall  never  steal  or  do  wrong  any  more.  I've  got 
religion,  sir,  me  and  Charley  Young.  We  got  it  off 
of  Jimmy  Daggs  (Jimmy  was  a  pious  contraband  we 


32  ON   A   MAN-OF-WAK. 

picked  up  in  the  Mississippi  River).  We  got  it  last 
week,  sir,  and  you  will  never  have  occasion  to  punish 
me  again." 

Examination,  nevertheless,  revealed  the  missing 
shirt  neatly  folded  in  Trusty's  bag,  and  poor  Trusty 
was  led  away  by  the  tormentors. 

At  eight  bells  (8  p.  M.)  the  executive  officer,  after 
a  personal  examination,  reports  everything  secure  to 
the  commander,  the  anchor  watch  is  set,  and  at  two 
bells  (9  P.  M.),  "  tattoo,"  then  quiet  reigns.  At  10  p.  M. 
the  wardroom  lights  are  extinguished,  unless  extended 
by  special  permission,  and  reported  out  to  the  com- 
mander, and  the  day  in  port  is  ended.  A  day  at  sea, 
as  you  will  see  hereafter,  never  ends. 


ON    A    ILLS'-OF-WAB. 


LETTER  IV. 

THE    DAT    BEGEfS THE    MARINES A    LITTLE   8TORT — 

HOW    THE    BOATS    ABE    MASKED "ALL    HANDS    UP 

ANCHOR" — "MAKE   SAO.1' — THE   BO  ATS  WATS   AM- 

THE    ADMIRAL "  ONE   OF    THEM    ?ERE    KINGS  "  AXI> 

THE    WIXD    SAIL THE    LOG TACKING    AND    WEAB- 

ESG  SHIP. 

THE  DAT  COMMENCES 

On  board  ship  at  midnight  with  the  midwatch;  eight 
bells  is  12  o'clock,  midnight;  one  bell  is  half -past  12; 
two  bells  1  o'clock;  three  bells  half -past  1,  and  so  on 
until  eight  bells,  4  o'clock,  commencing  again  at  one 
bell  and  arriving  at  eight  bells  at  8  oVlock  A.  M.,  so 
that  four  bells,  for  example,  may  be  2,  6  or  10  o'clock 
A.  M.  or  P.  M. 

THE    MARIXES. 

The  larger  ships  have  a  marine  guard  for  police 
and  guard  duty,  a  sentry  being  stationed  over  the 
"  scuttle  butt,"  which  contains  the  allowance  of  fresh 
drinking  water  for  the  men,  to  prevent  its  being 
carried  away  or  wasted;  a  sentry  is  placed  over  the 
**brig,"  in  charge  of  prisoners,  one  in  the  gangway 
and  one  as  orderly  at  the  cabin  door  with  a  corporal 
and  sergeant  of  the  guard  in  charge.  The  guard  is 


34  ON   A   MAN-OF-WAR. 

commanded  by  a  lieutenant  usually,  the  flj'gship  gen- 
erally having  a  captain  as  senior  officer. 

One  day  the  lieutenant  of  marines  happened  to  be 
in  the  cabin  when  the  orderly  came  in  and  took  off 
his  hat;  he  took  the  first  opportunity  to  tell  him  that 
"a  soldier  never  uncovers"  when  he  has  his  equipments 
on.  Well,  the  orderly  went  into  the  cabin  again, 
shortly  after,  and  in  accordance  with  his  late  instruc- 
tions kept  his  hat  on.  The  captain  did  not  notice  it 
at  first,  and  went  on  to  give  him  some  message;  but 
suddenly  observing  the  hat,  he  stopped  and  asked 
angrily: 

"What  are  you  doing  with  that  hat  on  ?" 

"A  soldier  never  uncovers,"  replied  the  orderly. 

"He  don't,  eh?"  said  the  skipper,  "I'll  show  you 
whether  he  does  or  not,"  and  he  bounced  the  son  of 
Mars.  I  noticed  after  that,  that  the  orderlies  always 
took  off  their  hats  and  bowed  low  when  entering  the 
presence  of  the  ii-ascible  commander.  x 

There  is,  of  course,  some  feeling  between  the  sea- 
men and  the  marines,  as  the  latter  are  frequently 
brought  in  collision  with  the  former  as  enforcers  of 
law,  but  the  contempt  of  seamen  for  marines  as  pop- 
ularly believed,  is  exaggerated. 
A  STOKY. 

I  remember  on  one  occasion  we  were  sitting  on  the 
forecastle,  smoking  in  the  twilight,  about  7.30  p.  M., 


ON   A   MAN-OF-WAR.  35 

the  ship  running  along  under  easy  sail,  when  the  look- 
out on  the  f oreyard  reported  "  light  ho  ! "  The  mas- 
ter's mate  in  charge  of  the  forecastle  had  frequently 
heard  the  officer  of  the  deck  question  the  lookout  as 
to  color  of  light,  red,  white,  fixed,  flash,  revolving,  etc., 
in  order  to  identifiy  the  light-house  to  the  satisfaction 
of  the  navigator,  who  is  responsible  for  the  position 
of  the  ship  at  all  times;  so  in  order  to  show  his  intel- 
ligence he  asked: 

"  Where  away  ?  " 

"Two  points  off  the  starboard  bow,  sir." 

"  Is  it  a  white  light  or  a  black  one  ? "  shouted  the 
incipient  admiral. 

Our  laughter  was  turned  into  a  convulsion  by  the 
prompt  appearance  of  the  orderly,  with  a  message 
from  the  captain,  who  happened  to  be  on- the  quarter 
deck,  who,  placing  himself  in  position  saluted  and 
said: 

"Mr.  Smith." 

"Sir." 

"  The  captain's  compliments,  sir,  and  you  are  a  dis- 
grace to  the  ship,  sir." 

"Aye,  aye,  sir,"  said  Smith,  and  the  orderly  faced 
about  and  returned  to  his  post  without  a  smile. 

One  day  Smith  went  into  the  cabin  with  an  appli- 
ration  for  promotion  to  the  grade  of  acting  master. 


0  ON    A    MAN-OF-WAB. 

The  cheerful  old  skipper  looked  up  amiably,  and 
said: 

"  Well,  sir,  what  do  you  want  ?  " 

"  If  you  please,  sir,"  said  Smith  timidly,  "  everyone 
is  being  promoted  now,  sir,  and  I  should  like  to  be  an 
acting  master." 

"  Oh  !  you  would,  eh  ? "  sneeringly  returned  the 
captain,  "  Why  in  the  devil  don't  you  apply  for  the 
position  of  a  rear  admiral,  you  are  just  about  as  fit 
for  one  as  the  other.  Get  out,  sir,"  and  he  got. 

THE    BOATS. 

As  I  have  previously  stated,  each  boat  has  its  cox- 
swain and  regular  crewr  and  the  boat  is  designated 
as  the  gig — 1st,  2d,  3d,  and  4th  cutter,  barge,  launch 

and  dingey.   In  the  S the  boats  were  named,  as  the 

Daisy,  Gypsy,  Juanita,  Zouave,  Rattler,  Lillie,  etc., 
and  instead  of  the  ordinary  custom  of  having  the 
boatswain's  mate  "  call  away  the  2d  cutter,"  the  bu- 
gler blew  a  call  which  was  more  musical,  and  attracted 
the  attention  of  each  of  the  boat's  crew  quicker  than 
the  other.  The  call  for  the  gig  or  Daisy,  was  two 
bars  of  the  soldiers'  chorus,  from  "Faust;"  the  Gypsy, 
had  the  Gypsy  song  in  "  Rosedalc;  "  the  Lillie,  "  Lord 
Bateman  was  a  Noble  Lord,"  from  the  same  play, 
while  the  Juanita  had  a  tune  of  the  same  name; 
another  tune  was  called  "all  boats,"  and  at  that  signal, 

1  have   seen   every   boat  manned,   shoved  off,    and 


ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR.  37 

lying  on  oars  in  line  ahead  in  forty  seconds,  without 
previous  warning. 

By  the  application  of  company  drill  to  boats,  as 
individuals,  signals  can  be  made  from  the  ship,  the 
hauling  down  of  the  same  being  the  order  for  execu- 
tion, and  any  number  of  boats  were  thus  handled  at 
will  without  a  word. 

CALLING  THE  BOATS  AWAY. 

When  a  boat  is  called  away  the  boat  keeper  drops 
his  boat  to  the  gangway,  the  crew  take  their  seats, 
and  the  coxswain  reports  to  the  officer  of  the  deck 
that  the  boat  is  manned.  Being  told  to  "  shove  off," 
he  gives  the  order  in  an  under-tone, 

"Shove  off," 

"Up  oars," 

"Let  fall," 

"  Give  way." 

The  bow  oarsmen,  up  oars  together,  let  fall,  and 
take  stroke  with  the  stroke  oar  without  any  order. 

On  nearing  the  wharf, 

"In  bow," 

"Way  enough," 

"Toss," 
are  the  usual  orders; 

"  Give  way  port," 

"  Hold  water  starboard," 

"  Ease  starboard," 


c.5  ON   A   MAN-OF-WAR. 

"Ease  your  oars," 

and  when  it  is  wished  to  cease  rowing,  the  order  is 
simply, 

"Oars," 
preceded,  generally,  from  the  coxswain  with, 

"Stand  by  to  lay  on  your  oars." 

When  boats  are  fitted  with  trailing  lines,  the  order 
changes  to, 

"  Out  oars," 

"Trail  bow,"  etc.; 

"  Give  way  strong," 

"Lift  her," 

"  Break  her  up,  bullies,"  etc., 

are  a  few  of  the  choice  terms  for  encouraging  a 
crew  to  pull. 

"  ALL  HANDS  UP  ANCHOR " 

"Was  the  morning  salutation  to  those  who  had  not 
been  included  in  the  usual  call  of  "  all  hands  "  at  day- 
light the  next  day,  and  speculation  was  rife  as  to  our 
destination.  On  board  a  man-of-war  no  one  knows 
when  the  ship  is  going,  or  where,  and  you  are  just  as 
likely  to  be  off  for  Japan  in  the  course  of  the  day  as 
not. 

GETTING  UNDER  WEIGH. 

There  was  a  hurrying  to  and  fro  as  the  men 
repaired  to  their  stations  for  getting  under  weigh; 
the  captains  of  tops  aloft  to  see  that  their  running 


<HT   A   MAN-OF-WAB.  39 

gear  was  clear  and  ready  for  quick  work.  The  gun- 
ner and  his  gang  got  up  and  passed  the  heavy  mes- 
senger, which,  passing  round  the  capstan  and  forward 
through  the  manger,  passed  the  hawse-holes  near  the 
chain,  and  performing  an  endless  circuit,  drew  in  the 
chain  with  it,  being  attached  thereto  with  nippers 
and  devil's  claws.  The  carpenter  shipped  and  swift  - 
ered  in  the  capstan  bars,  on  spar  and  gun-deck,  one 
above  the  other,  and  the  order  was  given: 

"Man  the  bars;  heave  round." 

As  the  chain  comes  slowly  in  to  the  inspiriting 
music  of  the  fife,  the  men  keeping  step  to  the  music, 
it  is  cleaned,  and  payed  below  into  the  chain  lockers, 
where  it  is  tiered  by  the  tierers.  When  the  chain  is 
"short"  the  order  is  given: 

•'MAKE  SAIL." 

Sail  is  set  as  previously  described,  and  the  yards 
braced,  according  to  the  direction  you  wish  to  cast 
the  ship;  say  main  yards  braced  up  with  starboard 
braces,  and  fore  and  rnizzen  with  port  braces.  As 
the  mizzen  or  cross  jack  (crawjick)  braces  lead  for- 
ward the  main  and  mizzen  would  be  braced  alike,  and 
the  fore  in  the  opposite  direction.  The  bars  are  again 
manned  and  the  anchor  lifted  by  the  chain  to  the 
hawse-hole,  the  yards  are  braced,  jib  hoisted,  spanker 
set,  and  the  ship  stands  on  under  easy  sail  until  the 
"cat,"  which  is  a  heavy  purchase  from  the  cat-head,  is 


40  ON   A   MAN-OF-WAR. 

hooked,  and  the  anchor  lifted  to  the  cat-head  clear  of 
the  water.  The  fish  then  hooks  the  arm  of  the 
anchor  and  pulls  it  upon  the  bill-board  and  the 
anchor  is  then  secured  for  sea. 

THE  BOATSWAIN  AND  THE  ADMIRAL. 

One  day  one  of  our  large  steam  frigates  wias  get- 
ting under  weigh,  and  the  anchor  came  up  "foul," 
with  the  chain  wrapped  around  the  "fluke."  The  offi- 
cer of  the  forecastle,  a  lieutenant,  reported  "  Foul 
anchor,  sir,"  and  proceeded  to  clear  it.  The  executive 
officer  in  a  few  minutes  went  forward  on  the  fore- 
castle to  try  and  hasten  matters.  Soon  the  captain  ner- 
vously came  on  the  forecastle,  followed  by  the  admi- 
ral. Two  midshipmen,  stationed  on  the  main  deck 
forward  at  the  chains,  seeing  that  there  was  rank 
enough  on  the  forecastle  to  bring  the  ship  by  the 
head,  also  climbed  up.  As  all  of  these  experienced 
and  intelligent  officers  were  leaning  over  the  bows, 
looking  at  a  poor  seaman,  sitting,  half  submerged,  on 
an  arm  of  the  anchor,  on  half  a  ton  of  mud,  the  old 
boatswain,  who  was  astraddle  of  "the  cat-head," 
yelled  at  the  man : 

"  What  are  you  putting  that  strap  on  there  for  ?  " 
Put  it  where  I  told  you." 

The  man  pointed  up  at  the  admiral,  and  said: 

"  He  says  put  it  here." 


OX   A   MAX-OF-WAR.  41 

"Me.'*  says  the  boatswain,  tt  What  in  the  devil 
does  he  know  about  it?" 

The  admiral  danced  around  for  a  minute,  and  hol- 
lered -for  a  stick  to  hit  that  old  man,"  but  then  con 
eluded  to  withdraw  and  attend  to  his  own  business. 

WITH  SAILS  SET. 

The  ship  being  fairly  under  weigh,  the  order  was 
given: 

"Aloft  and  loose  the  royals  and  topgallant  sails, 
clear  awav  the  flying  jib," 

"  Man  the  sheets  and  halliards,"' 

"Let  fall," 

44  Sheet  home," 

"Hoist  away." 

The  yards  were  trimmed,  the  courses  let  fall,  and 
the  ship  was  under  all  plain  sail.  As  we  stretched 
away  to  the  eastward,  the  ship  was  hauled  on  the 
wind,  the  bowlines,  which  steady  out  the  leech  of 
the  sail  forward,  to  prevent  its  readily  catching  aback, 
hauled  out,  windsails  trimmed,  and  the  decks  washed 
and  cleared  for  ready  work. 

"OXE  OF  THEM  *ERE  KIXGS"  AXD  THE  "  WIKl>SAru" 

A  **"  windsail*7  is  a  large  canvas  pipe  or  shoot,  open 
on  one  side  near  the  top,  with  wings  to  catch  the 
wind  and  drive  it  down  the  hatch  to  the  lower  decks. 
These  wing*  ore  spread  by  small  ropes  called  bowlines. 


4:2  ON    A   MAN-OF-WAB. 

and,  of  course,  must  be  trimmed  every  time  there  is 
a  change  of  wind  or  course.  You  remember  the 
story  of  one  of  our  ships  lying  at  Naples  ?  On 
being  visited  by  the  king  and  his  suite,  one  of  the 
latter,  with  cocked  hat,  moustache,  sword,  etc.,  was 
exploring  the  ship  and  mistook  the  main  hatch  wind- 
sail  for  a  mast,  I  suppose,  and  leaned  against  it. 
The  officer  of  the  deck  was  promptly  advised  of  the 
accident  by  the  boatswain's  mate,  who  said: 

"  Excuse  me,  sir,  but  I  think  one  of  them  'ere  kings 
has  fell  down  the  main  hatch,  sir." 

"  DEAD  RECKONING. 

As  we  were  about  to  lose  sight  of  land  the  navigator 
was  sent  for  to  take  his  "  departure,"  or  distance 
from  some  known  headland  to  commence  the  "dead 
reckoning  "  from.  The  log  was  hove  and  the  midship- 
man of  the  watch  reported  "  ten  six,  sir." 

"THE  LOG." 

A  log  chip  is  about  the  size  of  a  fourth  of  a  half- 
barrel  head,  a  quadrant  leaded  on  the  circumference, 
with  a  hole  in  each  corner.  The  log-line  attaches  to 
two  corners,  with  an  attachment  to  the  third  corner 
by  a  plug  that  on  a  smart  pull  comes  out  and  allows 
the  log  chip  to  swim  on  edge,  offering  little  resistance 
to  the  water.  The  log-line  is  marked  with  a  white 
rag  for  stray  line,  and  every  47.3  feet  thereafter  with 


ON   A    MAN-OF-WAR.  43 

a  knot,  with  half  knots  midway.  A  sand  glass  mark- 
ing twenty-eight  seconds  is  used,  and  bears  the  same 
proportion  to  an  hour  that  47.3  feet  does  to  a  sea  mile. 
The  line  is  woxind  on  a  reel,  the  log  chip  adjusted  and 
thrown  from  the  weather  quarter,  sinking  below  the 
surface  in  an  upright  position.  The  strayline  take* 
it  out  of  the  eddy  of  the  ship  and  the  glass  is  turned 
as  the  white  rag  passes  the  rail;  when  the  sand  runs 
out  the  holder  cries  "  out,"  the  line  is  checked  and  the 
line  read  to  the  nearest  knot,  and  estimated  for 
fathoms,  as  ten  knots  six  fathoms.  The  ship  was 
going  ten  and  three-quarter  knots  per  hour  by  the 
log. 

"  READY  ABOUT  " — TACKIXG  SHIP. 

"  Ready  about," 

"  Stations  for  stays," 

"  Everybody  on  deck  to  tack  ship," 
was  an  intimation  that  we  were  bound  to  the  south- 
ward. 

As  the  men  repaired  to  their  stations  the  helm  was 
eased  down,  and  as  the  foresail  began  to  lift,  the 
order  was  given, 

"Helms  alee," 

at  which  the  head  sheets  were  eased  off.  As  the  ship 
came  up  with  the  wind,  nearly  ahead, 

"  Rise  main  tack  and  sheet," 
was  given,  so  that  the  heavy  tack  and  sheet  blocks  on 


4A  ON    A   MAN-OF-WAK. 

the  clews  of  the  mainsail  would  swing  clear  of  the 
boats,  and  just  as  the  pennant  showed  the  wind  dead 
ahead,  and  the  spanker  flapped  warningly,  the  quick, 
sharp  order  of, 

"  Haul  taut,"  "  mainsail  haul," 

was  given,  at  which  the  after-yards  were  swung 
swiftly. and  braced  up  on  the  other  tack. 

"  Head  braces," 

"  Haul  well  taut," 

and  when  you  are  sure  that  the  ship  is  round  on  the 
other  tack, 

"  Let  go  and  haul," 

bracing  round  the  head-yards  by  main  strength,  as 
being  aback  they  have  to  be  pulled  against  the  wind 
until  sharp  up  enough  to  begin  to  draw  with  the 

main.     The   S tacked  beautifully,  never  losing 

her  "  way  in  stays."  Some  ships  are  less  quick,  and 
gather  stern  board  after  main-yards  are  swung,  and 
you  have  to  be  careful  to  shift  your  helm  and  not  get 
your  ship  "  in  irons,"  which  is  when  she  goes  neither 
way  except  astern. 

"  WEARING  A  SHIP  " 

Is  when  you  put  your  helm  up  and  go  round  the 
other  way. 

You  know  the  story  of  the  whaler  that  came  into 
New  Bedford,  after  having  been  gone  about  three 


OX    A   MAX-OF-WAB.  45 

years,  with  only  about  150  barrels  of  oil.  One  of  the 
owners  coming  on  board  asked,  in  the  course  of  the 
conversation,  the  usual  courteous  question: 

"  Well,  captain,  how  did  you  like  your  ship  ?  " 
"Oh,   pretty   well,"  said  the  grumbler,  "but  she 
wouldn't  *  wear  nor  stay.' " 

"Well,  I'm  blessed  if  you  didn't  stay  until  you 
wore  her  all  out,"  somewhat  bitterly  replied  the 
unlucky  proprietor. 

SETTTS-G  STUDDEfG  SAIL. 

The  weather  continuing  pleasant,  and  the  wind 
hauling  more  aft,  the  captain,  after  church,  ordered 
the  studding  sails  set. 

The  stu'n's'ls  are  set  on  booms,  which  are  rigged 
out  on  the  topsail,  lower  yards,  and  from  side  of  ship, 
projecting  an  additional  sail  as  topg'll't,  topm'st  and 
lower  stu'n's'ls. 

"  Get  all  your  port  stu'n's'ls  ready  for  setting," 
is  the  order,  then, 

"  Rig  out,  hoist  away  the  stuVsIs," 
getting  the  tacks  well  out,  then  yards  snug  up,  trim- 
ming down  the  sheets  according  to  the  position  of  the 
yards.     The  stuVs'ls  are  taken  in  in  the  same  manner. 

"  Stand  by  to  take  in  all  the  port  stu'n's'ls,  lower 
away," 


ON    A   MAN-OF-WAB. 


"  Haul  down," 

"  Rig  in," 

starting  the  tacks  when  the  yards  are  down  to  the 
booms. 


OH   A    MAX-OF-WAB.  47 

LETTER  V. 

SHORTEXIXG  SAIL. 

About  seven  p.  M.  (six  bells  in  the  second  dog- 
watch) it  began  to  freshen  up,  so  that  the  captain 
directed  the  officer  of  the  deck  to  take  in  the  royals 
and  flying  jib.  The  ship  was  standing  along  to  the 
southward,  about  two  points  free,  the  wind  being 
abeam,  going  about  eleven  knots,  this  being  her  best 
point  of  sailing.  The  port  watch  of  hammocks  was 
piped  down,  the  starboard  watch  having  the  eight 
hours  out,  and  everything  was  made  snug  and  clear 
for  running. 

THE  LOOKOUTS. 

As  it  was  now  quite  dark,  the  masthead  lookout 
was  called  down,  and  the  regular  lookouts  stationed. 
There  is  a  lookout  at  the  starboard  cat-head,  one  at 
the  port  cat-head,  starboard  and  port  gangways  and 
starboard  and  port  quarters.  It  is  their  duty  to  keep 
a  bright  lookout  and  to  report  anything  that  they 
see,  promptly,  to  the  officer  of  deck.  At  every  stroke 
of  the  bell,  that  is,  every  half  hour,  they  call  their 
station,  in  the  above  order,  to  show  that  they  are 
wide  awake.  Some  of  the  responses  are  very  funny, 
especially  during  the  first  part  of  a  cruise,  before  the 
men  have  quite  learned  what  is  required  of  them. 


•  ON    A   MAN-OF-WAR. 

One  landsman  called  "starboard  gangway"  all 
right,  and  when  all  had  finished,  fearing  that  he  had 
neglected  some  part  of  his  duty,  startled  the  officer 
of  the  deck  with  the  addition, 

"  And  I  am  here," 
provoking  that  somewhat  impatient  official  to  inquire: 

"  You  ?     Who  in  the  d— 1  are  you  ?  " 

REEFING  TOPSAILS. 

The  wind  increased  during  the  first  watch,  so  that 
the  captain  decided  to  reduce  sail;  accordingly  the 
officer  of  the  deck  notified  me,  just  before  midnight, 
that  "  it  was  reef  topsails." 

I  came  on  deck  and  relieved  the  officer  of  the  deck 
in  time  to  call  the  mid  watch,  and  as  "  reef  topsails  " 
means  "  all  hands,"  the  unfortunate  starboard  watch 
were  obliged  to  stay  on  deck,  with  the  port  watch, 
and  help. 

"  On  deck  everybody  reef  topsails," 
was  the  order,  and  in  a  few  minutes  the  men  were  at 
their  stations.     It  was  then  blowing  quite  fresh;   too 
fresh,  indeed,  for  a  landsman  to  go  aloft.     I  however 
took  in  the  topgallant  sails  and  gave  the  orders: 

"  Man  the  topsail  clewlines  and  buntlines," 

"  Hands  by  the  topsail  halliards," 

«  Haul  taut," 

"  Round  in  the  weather  topsail  braces," 


ON   A    MAN-OF-WAR.  49 

"Settle  away  the  topsail  halliards," 

"Clew  down," 

"  Haul  out  the  reef  tackles," 

"  Pull  up  the  buntlines," 

"  Stand  hy  to  lay  aloft  and  take  one  reef  in  the 
topsails," 

"  Aloft,  topmen," 

"  Man  the  boom  tricing  lines," 

"Trice  up," 

"  Lay  out  and  take  one  reef." 

The  men  were  up  and  out  on  the  yard  as  quickly  as 
the  orders  were  given,  and  picking  up  the  sail  lighted 
it  to  windward  to  enable  the  captain  of  the  top,  at 
the  weather  earring,  to  haul  it  well  out  and  up  on 
the  yard;  then, 

"  Light  out  to  leeward  and  tie  away," 

"All  ready  with  the  main,  sir," 

"  All  ready  with  the  fore,  sir." 

The  mizzen  always  reports  first,  being  a  smaller  sail 
and  having  no  booms  to  trice.  They  generally  report 
whether  ready  or  not,  trusting  to  their  custom  of  get- 
ting through  first  to  carry  them  out. 

"  Stand  by  the  booms," 

"Lay  in," 

"  Down  booms," 

"  Lay  down  from  aloft," 

"Man  the  tops'l  halliards," 


50  ON    A   MAN-OF-WAR. 

"  Tend  the  braces," 

"  Ease  away  the  gear," 

"  Hoist  away  the  topsails," 

"Stamp  and  go — walk  away  with  her!" 
are  the  usual  terras  of  encouragement,  and  the  top- 
sail yards  are  hoisted  and  braced  in  a  little  more  than 
b'efore,  the  topgallant  sails  are  set,  and  the  watch 
goes  below  to  be  called  again  at  4  A.  M. 

An  old  captain   ordered  that  if  the  men  would 

reef  topsails  in  three  minutes,  he  would  serve  out  an 

extra  tot  of   grog — splice  the  main  brace,  as  it  is 

,  called.     Away  went  the  men,  and  the  first  lieutenant 

reported  "  two  minutes  and  fifty-five  seconds,  sir." 

"  Now,"  said  the  old  rascal,  "  I  know  you  can  do  it 
in  three  minutes,  and  if  you  don't  next  time  I'll  put 
every  man  of  you  in  irons." 

SUNDAY  ON  SHIPBOARD. 

The  next  morning  the  wind  moderated  and  sail  was 
made  again,  the  officer  of  the  morning  watch  having 
shaken  the  reefs  out  of  the  topsails,  washed  decks 
and  freshened  things  up  generally  for  Sunday.  At 
9.30  A.  M.  quarters  and  inspection,  and  then  the  bell 
tolled  for  church.  Divine  service  is  generally  held 
Sunday  morning  on  board  a  man-of-war,  the  men 
being  seated  on  capstan  bars  round  about  the  spar 


ON  A  MAS-OF-WAR.  51 

deck  capstan,  in   pleasant  weather,  which  forms  a 
very  convenient  pulpit  for  the  chaplain. 

WHY  THET  HURRIED  TO  SERVICE. 

A  visitor  on  board  a  man-of-war,  before  the  stop- 
page of  the  grog  ration,  on  witnessing  the  haste  dis- 
played by  the  men  in  getting  to  church  service,  said: 

"  Why,  you  don't  have  to  go  to  church,  do  you, 
unless  you  want  to  ?  " 

"  Oh,  no,"  replied  the  man,  "  we  don't  have  to,  only 
we  lose  our  grog  if  we  don't.** 

The  grog  days  are  over  now,  however,  in  the 
United  States  navy. 

"Now  mess-mates  pass  the  bottle  round, 

It  is  the  last,  remember, 
For  our  grog  must  stop,  and  our  spirits  drop. 
On  the  first  day  of  September. 

"AH  hands  to  '  splice  the  main  brace '  call. 

But  well  splice  it  now,  in  sorrow, 
For  the  spirit-room  key  will  be  laid  away, 
Forerer.  on  to-morrow." 

THE  STORY  ABOUT  THE  CO3OCODOBK.. 

They  tell  a  story  of  an  old  commodore,  at  the  Bos- 
ton yard,  who  forbade  the  chaplain  to  commence 
service  in  the  chapel  before  the  arrival  of  his  royal 
highness;  so  when  the  burly  form  of  the  commodore 
entered  the  chapel  door,  he  began, 


52  ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR. 

"The  Lord  is  in  His  holy  temple,  let  all  the  earth," 
etc. 

The  commodore  would  then  comfortably  compose 
himself  for  a  nap,  confident  that  the  country  was 
quite  safe,  and  "  that  the  service  was  not  going  to 
the  d 1,"  at  least  that  day. 

One  Sunday  morning  the  commodore  was  roused 
from  his  nap  by  something  out  of  the  usual  routine 
being  announced  from  the  pulpit,  and  he  sternly 
addressed  the  chaplain  with: 

"  What's  that  ?    What's  that  ?  " 

The  chaplain  demurely  repeated  the  notice  that, 

"By  order  of  the  bishop  of  this  diocese,  divine 
service  will  be  performed  in  this  chapel  on  Thursday 
evening  next,  beginning  at  half -past  seven  o'clock." 

"  By  whose  order  ?  " 

"  By  order  of  the  bishop  of  this  diocese,  sir." 

"  Well,"  thundered  the  commodore,  "  I'll  let  you 
know  that  I  am  bishop  of  this  diocese,  and  when  I 
want  service  in  this  chapel  I'll  let  you  know.  "  Pipe 
down;"  and  he  cleared  the  chapel. 

On  one  occasion  he  heard  a  different  voice  in  the 
pulpit  from  usual,  and  looking  up  he  asked: 

"Who  is  that  up  there?  Is  that  you,  Billy 
McMasters  ?  " 

"Yes,  sir," 


OH  A  MAX-OF-WAE.  53 

(Billy  was  a  religions  foreman  in  the  yard,  who 
sometimes  helped  the  chaplain  along.) 

"  Come  down  out  of  that,"  thundered  the  commo- 
dore, "when  I  want  a  relief  for  the  chaplain  Fll 
appoint  one;  don't  yon  ever  let  me  catch  you  up 
there  again,"  and  he  cleared  the  chapel  again, 

Another  eccentric  commander,  with  a  taste  for 
theology,  startled  the  chaplain  one  Sunday  when  he 
came  up  in  his  robes,  by  saying: 

"ITl  relieve  you,  sir,  to-day." 

He  accordingly  read  a  chapter  from  Genesis,  and 
finished  up  at, 

"And  the  Lord  called  unto  Adam,  and  said,  *  Why 
hast  thou  eaten  of  the  fruit  that  I  commanded  ye  not 
to  eat.' n 

"  Now,  my  men,  what  do  you  think  Adam  said  ? 
Why,  instead  of  coming  out  strong,  and  allowing 
that  he  did  it.  he  did  what  the  meanest  landsman  in 
the  ship  wouldn't  have  done;  and  what  do  you  sup- 
pose that  was  ?  Why,  he  laid  it  on  a  woman.** 

"  Pipe  down,**  and  church  was  over. 

SnOtABY  COUBTS-MABTIAL. 

One  day  I  was  ordered  as  presiding  officer  of  a 
summary  court-martial  for  the  trial  of  another  invet- 
erate thief,  also  colored,  like  the  previously  alluded  to 
Trusty.  The  trial  was  simply  a  matter  of  form,  as 


54  ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR. 

everybody  knew  that  he  had  stolen  time  and  again, 
but  the  law  prohibited  the  punishment  of  a  man  with 
any  severity,  except  by  sentence  of  a  summary  court- 
martial. 

WHAT  THE  PRISONER  WANTED  TO  KNOW. 

After  the  testimony  of  several  witnesses  in  behalf 
of  the  prosecution,  all  tending  to  criminate  the  pris- 
oner, I  asked  him  the  usual  question,  before  the  with- 
drawal of  the  last  one, 

"  Do  you  desire  to  ask  the  witness  any  questions  ?  " 

"Yes,  I  do,  I  want  to  know,  master-at-arms,  if 
you  kissed  dat  book  to  tell  de  truf,  or  just  to  tell 
lies  on  me,  dats  what  I  want  to  know." 

The  question  being  ruled  as  irrelevant,  I  then  asked 
him  if  he  desired  to  call  any  witnesses  in  his  defense. 

"  Witnesses!  Not  much;  you  got  witnesses  enough 
now  to  hang  me." 

The  unhappy  moke  consequently  was  sentenced  to 
thirty  days'  bread  and  water  and  three  months'  loss 
of  pay,  at  the  end  of  which  time  he  emerged,  look- 
ing, if  anything,  fatter  and  more  complacent  than 
before. 

ANCHORING  IN  HAJfPTON  ROADS. 

The  wind  and  weather  continuing  fair  we  passed 
between  the  capes  of  the  Chesapeake  and  anchored  in 
Hampton  Roads  on  the  following  afternoon,  where 


OK  A  1CAN-OF-WAB.  55 

we  found  a  large  number  of  men-of-war,  also  at 
anchor,  awaiting  orders  from  the  admiral. 

SEXIOK  OFFICER 

It  is  a  good  deal  of  a  nuisance  to  be  in  the  presence 
of  a  "Senior  Officer."  You  have  to  follow  his 
motions  entirely,  strike  the  bell  at  the  same  time, 
loose  sail  and  cross  yards  by  signal;  the  men  must 
be  dressed  in  white  or  blue,  as  are  those  of  the  flag- 
ship; and  it  is  more  than  probable  that  the  admiral 
will  signal  suddenly,  just  when  you  don't  want  it,  to 
"  arm  and  equip  boats,"  passing  in  review  under  the 
stern  of  the  flag-ship  for  inspection  to  see  if  each 
boat  be  armed  with  so  many  rifles,  cutlasses  and 
revolvers,  and  supplied  with  cook  stove,  fish  lines, 
lead  patches  for  covering  shot  holes,  spare  oars,  ham- 
mers, nails,  etc.,  with  fresh  water  in  breakers  for 
drinking,  pork,  hardtack,  flints  and  steel  (for  matches 
are  forbidden  on  board  ship),  with  which  the  boat  Ls 
laden  nearly  to  the  gunwale. 

The  admiral  detailed  us  temporarily  for  guardship, 
which  required  us  to  inspect  every  vessel,  passing  in 
and  out,  to  see  if  papers  were  in  order,  and  vessel 
properly  cleared. 


56  ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR. 

HOW  THE  COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF  OF  THE  AEMY  WAS 
"BROUGHT  TO." 

One  day  the  officer  of  the  deck  hastily  called  to  me 
that  he  had  hailed  a  steamer  twice  with  no  response. 
I  sprang  upon  the  bridge  and  hailed  the  steamer 
with, 

"  Stop  your  engine,  sir." 

As  he  did  not  stop  I  sung  out: 

"  Pivot  guns  crew  to  your  quarters." 

The  men  came  aft  with  a  jump,  and  down  came 
the  temporary  bulwarks,  around  swung  the  gun,  and 
"  bang  "  went  a  hundred  pound  shell  about  as  many 
yards  to  the  right  of  the  steamer. 

Well,  she  turned  round  so  quick  that  it  seemed  as  if 
she  might  capsize.  The  captain  came  jumping  out 
of  the  cabin  to  know  what  was  the  matter,  and  rue- 
fully exclaimed  that  I  had  broken  all  the  glass  in  the 
cabin  windows. 

I  called  a  midshipman  and  sent  him  on  board  the 
steamer  with  orders  to  put  on  airs,  and  "want  to 
know,  you  know,"  etc. 

He  soon  returned,  having  permitted  the  steamer  to 
proceed,  reporting: 

"  Well,  sir,  I  went  aboard  and  sternly  asked  the 
captain  for  his  papers.  He  pointed  to  an  army  officer 
standing  near,  saying: 

"  '  There  are  my  papers.' 


OH   A   MAX-OF-WAK.  67 

"I  didn't  understand,  and  he  added: 
"  *  Major-General    Halleck,   sir,   commanding  the 
armies  of  the  United  States.' 

"  '  You  can  proceed,'  said  I,  and  returned  aboard." 


58  ON   A   MAN-OF-WAR. 


LETTER  VL 

HEAVING  THE  LEAD. 

The  depth  of  water  is  ascertained  on  board  ship 
by  "  heaving  the  lead."  An  ordinary  hand  lead  line 
is  from  fifteen  to  twenty  fathoms  in  length  and  is 
marked  at  one,  two,  three,  five  and  seven  fathoms, 
with  strips  of  leather,  colored  rags,  and  at  ten  with 
"  a  piece  of  round  hole  with  a  leather  in  it,"  as  I 
heard  a  small  boy  once  say. 

The  lead  weighs  five,  seven  or  ten  pounds,  accord- 
ing to  the  depth' of  water  and  the  speed  of  the  ship. 
The  thrower  generally  stands  in  the  "  chains  "  outside 
the  rail  of  the  ship,  with  a  canvas  strap  around  his 
waist  to  prevent  his  falling  overboard,  and  swings 
the  lead,  launching  it  well  forward,  feels  the  bottom 
as  the  line  comes  up  and  down,  and  chants,  "by  the 
mark  five,"  or  "  by  the  deep  six,"  as  the  case  may  be. 

An  Irishman,  who  could  do  everything,  was  sent 
into  the  chains  one  day  to  heave  the  lead.  He  com- 
menced chanting  away  at  intervals  until  the  officer  of 
the  deck,  despairing  of  making  out  the  depth  of 
water,  came  up  and  asked  him  what  he  said. 

"  Divil  a  word  did  I  say,  sur.  I  learned  the  tune 
only  and  never  caught  the  words,"  replied  Dennis. 


ON   A   MAN-OF-WAR.  59 

At  sea,  when  the  water  is  deeper,  the  deep  sea  (pro- 
nounced dipsey)  lead  is  used. 

A  Dutchman  at  the  lead  line,  who  had  not  exactly 
caught  the  words,  chanted  in  a  Dutch  monotone: 

"  Blainty  of  va-a-ter  he-ere.  Xot  quite  zo  mooch 
va-a-ter  he-ere.  You'd  petter  keep  avay  from  here," 
and  as  the  ship  struck  in  three  fathoms  of  water, 

"Didn't  I  to-old  you  so-o  ?  " 

THE  SKIPPER  WHO  KNEW  BY    THE  TASTE. 

You  remember  the  poem  reciting  the  gift  possessed 
by  the  skipper  of  a  Xantucket  schooner,  of  being 
able,  by  the  taste,  to  tell  exactly  where  the  schooner 
was.  An  incredulous  mate,  on  one  occasion,  rubbed 
the  well  tallowed  lead  in  the  earth  of  a  box  of  plants, 
which  some  lover  of  flowers  had  brought  from  Xan- 
tucket, and  carried  it  in  to  the  slumbering  captain, 
as  a  specimen  of  the  sounding  just  taken.  The  skip- 
per rubbed  his  eyes  and  sleepily  tasted.  Springing 
from  his  bunk,  he  rushed  on  deck  exclaiming: 

"  Xant  ticket's  sunk,  and  here  we  are  right  over  old 
Mann  Hackett's  garden! " 

SALUTES  AND  CEREMONIES. 

\Vhile  we  lay  in  Hampton  Roads  we  were  con- 
stantly visiting  and  receiving  visits  from  other  offi- 
cers of  the  squadron,  as  well  as  from  some  French 
and  English  officers,  whose  ships  were  lying,  tempo- 


60  ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR, 

v 

rarily,  in  the  Roads,  and  the  side  was  being  piped, 
and  two,  four,  six  or  eight  side  boys  constantly  rush- 
ing to  the  gangway,  as  officers  of  different  rank  came 
on  board. 

When  the  President  of  the  United  States  visits 
one  of  our  men-of-war,  he  is  received  at  the  gangway 
by  the  admiral,  commanding  officer,  and  all  the  offi- 
cers of  the  ship,  in  full  uniform,  the  crew  at  quarters 
for  inspection,  the  marine  guard  drawn  up  with  the 
band  on  the  quarter  deck,  the  national  flag  is  dis- 
played at  the  main,  the  drummer  gives  four  ruffles, 
the  band  plays  the  national  air,  and  a  salute  of  twen- 
ty-one guns  is  fired;  the  same  ceremony  also  taking 
place  on  his  leaving;  the  yards  may  also  be  manned 
unless  forbidden.  On  one  occasion  when  the  Presi- 
dent visited  one  of  our  ships  informally,  dispensing 
with  salute  and  ceremony,  one  of  the  men  rather 
indignantly  asked  another,  "  who  that  lubber  was  on 
the  quarter  deck  that  didn't  '  douse  his  peak '  to  the 
commodore  ?  " 

"  Choke  your  luff,  will  you,"  was  the  reply,  "  that's 
the  President  of  the  United  States." 

"Well!  ain't  he  got  manners  enough  to  salute  the 
quarter  deck  if  he  is  ?  " 

"Manners!  What  does  he  know  about  manners  f 
I  don't  suppose  he  was  ever  out  of  sight  of  land  in 
his  life." 


ON   A    MA>--OF-WAK.  61 

On  one  occasion  while  lying  in  a  foreign  port,  an 
officer  from  shore,  I  have  forgotton  of  what  rank, 
came  on  board  officially  to  visit  the  ship.  I  inter- 
viewed his  aid  to  know  what  the  Dago's  rank  was. 
(Sailors  call  everybody  that  speaks  Spanish,  Italian 
and  Portuguese,  Dagos.)  He  replied  that  he  was  enti- 
tled to  six  guns.  I  said  we  give  five  or  seven  guns, 
but  never  six,  take  seven;  but  no,  he  persisted  six 
guns  was  enough,  and  so  we  fired  him  his  salute  of  six 
guns. 

The  Chinese  national  salute  is  only  three  guns,  and 
saves  a  great  deal  of  expense  in  the  way  of  powder. 

BOY  OVERBOABD. 

We  had   a  number  of   apprentices  on  board  the 

S ,  and  they  were  drilling  one  afternoon  at  the 

various  drills,  and  among  others  there  was  a  crew  in 
the  fore  chains  exercising  "heaving  the  lead."  It 
seems  that,  contrary  to  express  orders,  one  of  the  boys 
was  standing  on  one  of  the  upper  half  ports  which 
close  the  gundeck  port-holes.  When  open  these  ports 
are  triced  up  on  their  hinges  and  kept  level  by  the 
port  lanyard.  Another  boy  also  jumped  on  to  the 
port,  and  their  united  weight  broke  the  lanyard;  the 
port  falling,  threw  one  of  the  boys  into  the  water. 
I  happened  to  be  standing  on  the  gundeck,  near  the 
ward  room  hatch,  and  hearing  the  unusual  rush  on 
deck,  sprang  to  the  hatchway. 


0*4  ON   A   MAN-OF-WAR. 

"  Boy  overboard,  sir." 

I  ran  aft  to  the  life  buoy,  which  hangs  on  the  quar- 
ter, and  pulled  the  bell-pull,  dropping  the  buoy 
instantly.  I  could  see  nothing  of  the  boy,  however, 
although  I  judged  that  the  rapid  current  of  the  Dela- 
ware River  would  have  carried  him  down  to  about 
where  the  life  buoy  was  then  floating.  The  boat 
keeper  in  the  gig,  which  was  lying  at  the  lower  stud- 
ding-sail boom,  quickly  dropped  his  boat  astern. 
Two  boats,  which  were  exercising  at  oars  close  by, 
pulled  promptly  up,  but  in  vain,  the  little  fellow  did 
not  come  up. 

I  turned,  and  looked  forward  at  the  eager  sea  of 
faces  turned  to  me,  as  if  to  read  in  my  countenance 
the  fate  of  the  boy. 

"  Go  on  with  your  exercises,"  I  said  shortly. 

And  almost  instantly  one  could  hear  "by  the 
ma-a-rk  five  "  from  the  very  spot  from  which  the  boy 
fell. 

"  Present  arms," 

"  Run  in," 

"  Serve  vent  and  sponge," 

from  the  other  sections  drilling  close  by,  and  for  the 
time  the  little  drowned  shipmate  was  forgotten. 

A  few  days  afterward,  when  the  body  was  found, 
an  ugly  mark  on  the  forehead  showed  that  he  had 


ON   A   MAS-OF-WAB.  63 

probably  been  stunned  by  striking  his  head  against 
the  gun  in  falling,  and  did  not  therefore  come  up. 

We  had  a  sad  sort  of  a  funeral,  for  the  little  fellow 
was  a  great  favorite  with  all.  A  few  days  after  a 
woman  in  deep  black  came  on  board  "to  see  the  cap- 
tain." The  captain,  who  was  really  a  great  big  ten- 
der-hearted fellow,  though  he  would  scorn  to  acknowl- 
edge such  a  thing,  suspected  that  it  was  the  boy's 
mother,  and  gently  suggesting  that  it  was  the  first 
lieutenant  that  she  wished  to  see,  "  slid  out "  quietly, 
and  sent  me  in  to  "  tell  her  all  about  it." 

"  You  officers  don't  have  much  of  anything  to  do 
on  board  of  ship  except  in  time  of  war,  do  you  ?  " 

I  have  often  wished  that  I  could  capture  a  few  of 
the  idiots  that  talk  in  that  way,  and  set  them  at 
work — real  work  on  board  ship  for  about  a  month. 
I  think  that  they  would  begin  to  realize  that  they 
had  been  only  playing  hitherto. 

I  had  to  listen  to  this  poor  woman's  story,  and  see 
her  tears  and  sobs  as  she  explained: 

"  You  know,  sir,  that  poor  little  Dick  was  a  son  of 
my  first  husband,  sir,  and  then,  sir,  you  know  times 
was  hard,  and  I  didn't  know  what  to  do,  and  Mr. 

L ,  sir,  came  along  and  I  thought  it  would  be 

best,  you  know,  sir,  and  make"  a  home  for  Dick,  and 
I  married  again.  "Well,  Dick  didn't  seem  to  get  along 
well  with  his  father,  and  he  was  forever  at  me  about 


04  ON   A   MAN-OF-WAR. 

him,  so  I  shipped  him  as  an  apprentice  boy,  as  you 
know,  sir,  and  now  the  poor  little  fellow's  dead,  and 
lie  might  have  lived,  you  know,  sir." 

I  wonder  if  any  one  thinks  that  it  was  easy  for  me 
to  listen  to  this  sad  story;  easy  for  me  to  try  to  con- 
sole this  poor  mother  in  her  great  grief;  and  easy  for 
me  to  go  back  on  deck  and  run  the  vast,  never-ceasing 
machine  of  a  man-of-war  with  my  heart  still  like  a 
great  lump  in  my  throat. 


OX    A    ilAX-OF-WAB.  65 


LETTER  VH. 

BOHXG  THE  COMPASS* 

"Can  you  box  the  compass,  sir?" 

"  Well,  sir,  that  depends  upon  the  size  and  shape 
of  TOUT  compass!"  was  the  reply  of  an  embryo  mid- 
shipman one  day  on  board  ship. 

That  is  all  very  well  as  a  story,  but  no  person  can 
be  on  board  a  ship  more  than  a  week,  without  finding 
out  that  he  must  learn  the  compass  if  he  would 
understand  much  of  what  is  going  on  around  him. 

The  four  cardinal  points  of  the  compass  are  north, 
south,  east  and  west,  from  the  initials  of  which  the 
word  "  news  "  is  formed  and  derived,  being  collected 
from  all  directions.  As  it  is  necessary  to  steer 
between  these  points,  subdivisions  had  to  be  made; 
as,  half-way  between  north  and  east  became  northeast, 
and  the  opposite  point  southwest;  half  way  between 
north  and  northeast  became  north  northeast,  and 
between  east  and  northeast,  of  course,  east  northeast ; 
this,  not  being  minute  enough,  was  subdivided  again, 
and  became  north  by  east,  and  east  by  north,  etc,, 
the  learner  remembering  that  there  are  thirty-two 
points  of  eleven  and  a  quarter  degrees  each;  that  the 
initials  of  any  point  exchange  exactly  with  the  oppo- 


bb  ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR. 

site  point,  as,  the  opposite  of  northeast  by  north,  is, 
of  course,  south  west  by  south. 

Boxing  the  compass  consists  in  repeating  the  names 
of  the  points,  commencing  at  any  point,  and  going 
either  way  round  to  the  place  of  beginning;  as,  nor', 
nor'  by  east,  nor'  nor'east,  nothe-east  by  nor',  nothe- 
east;  nothe-east  by  east,  east  nothe-east,  east  by  nor', 
east;  east  by  sou',  east  southeast,  south  east  by  east, 
southeast;  southeast  by  south,  south  southeast,  south 
by  east,  south;  south  by  west,  south  southwest,  south- 
west by  south,  southwest,  southwest  by  west,  west 
southwest,  west  by  south,  west;  and  so  on. 

You  remember  the  sailor,  who  didn't  know  the 
Lord's  Prayer,  upon  hearing  the  chaplain  repeat  it, 
asked  him  to  say  it  backwards  and  triumphantly 
proved  the  better  knowledge  of  his  profession  by 
boxing  the  compass  backwards  and  forwards. 

"  How  do  you  head  ? "  called  the  captain  one  day 
to  the  man  at  the  wheel. 

"  Nor'west  by  west,  a  half  west,  westerly,  sir,"  was 
the  answer. 

"  Put  another  west  to  that,  and  I'll  give  you  a  tot 
of  grog,"  said  the  skipper. 

"  Aye,  aye,  sir,"  said  the  quick-witted  helmsman. 
"Nor'west  by  west,  a  half  west,  westerly,  Captain 
West." 


OX    A    MAN-OF-WAR.  <>i 

Fortunately  for  the  story  and  the  helmsman,  the 
skipper's  name  was  West. 

VARIATION  OF  THE  COMPASS. 

Variation  of  the  compass  is  the  difference  between 
the  true  north  and  the  north  as  shown  by  the  compass, 
and  varies  with  the  position  or  location  of  the 
observer;  the  variation  of  the  compass  is  marked  on 
the  charts  as  ascertained  by  observation,  and  should 
be  corrected  from  time  to  time,  as  it  is  not  constant, 
but  varies  from  year  to  year.  Variation  is  designated, 
easterly  or  westerly,  according  as  the  true  north  is  to 
the  eastward  or  westward  of  that  point  as  shown  by 
the  compass.  The  Navy  Department  requires  that 
observations,  which  are  called  azimuths,  or  amplitudes, 
be  taken  daily,  to  find  the  variation  of  the  compass, 
and  that  a  record  of  the  same  be  kept;  from  an  aver- 
age of  these  observations  the  charts  are  kept  cor- 
rected. 

DEVIATION  OF  THE  COMPASS. 

There  is  another  correction  to  be  applied  to  a  com- 
pass, which  is  called  deviation;  this  is  a  local  error  in 
the  ship  itself,  and  must  be  ascertained,  and  either 
removed  or  corrected. 

In  an  iron  ship,  like  the  ill-fated  Huron,  surrounded 
as  the  compass  was  with  iron  guns  and  iron  bolts, 


68  ON   A   MAN-OF-WAR. 

you  will  readily  see  that  this  sensitive  magnet,  the 
compass  needle,  would  be  attracted  or  repelled 
variously,  according  to  the  direction  of  the  ship's 
head;  the  compass  being  aft,  the  greater  bulk  of  iron, 
attractive  or  repellant,  according  to  which  pole  of 
the  needle  was  nearest,  would  naturally  be  forward; 
if  the  ship  was  headed  north,  the  deviation  would 
probably  be  at  a  minimum;  if  east  or  west,  at  a 
maximum. 

HOW  TO  CORRECT  THIS  DEVIATION. 

In  order  to  ascertain  the  deviation,  the  ship  is 
swung  from  a  buoy,  with  her  head  successively  on 
each  point  of  the  compass,  a  bearing  is  taken  of 
another  observer  stationed  at  a  considerable  distance 
on  shore,  who  at  the  same  instant  notes  the  bearing 
of  the  ship,  and  telegraphs  the  reading  of  his  compass, 
which  has  no  deviation;  if  the  two  bearings  are  the 
reverse  of  each  other,  there  is  no  deviation  on  that 
point;  if  they  differ,  the  difference  is  the  deviation, 
and  so  on  for  each  point  of  the  compass. 

The  deviation  may  be  easterly,  the  variation  west- 
erly, and  the  difference  would  be  the  correction  when 
applied  to  the  compass,  when  heading,  say  northwest; 
but  when  heading  southeast  the  deviation  would 
more  likely  be  westerly  and  would  be  added  to  the 
variation  as  a  correction. 


OM  A   MAX-OF-WAR.  69 

Generally,  where  the  deviation  is  great  and  varied, 
it  is  corrected  by  two  magnets  laid  in  the  deck,  in 
such  positions,  determined  by  experiment,  as  will 
overcome  and  correct  the  attraction  of  the  ship. 

I  remember  on  one  occasion  the  ship  ran  away,  and 
like  to  have  got  overboard,  because  some  careless 
chap  stowed  his  knife  away  in  the  binnacle, 

HOW  BOATS  ARE  LOWERED  IX  A  SEAWAY. 

There  is  great  difficulty  in  manning  a  boat  at  sea 
in  rough  weather.  The  boat  rises  and  falls  with  each 
wave,  while  the  ship  rolls  violently  from  side  to  side, 
making  it  no  easy  matter  to  avoid  either  swamping 
the  boat  or  dashing  it  in  pieces  against  the  side  of 
the  ship.  The  only  chance  in  the  boat's  favor  isin  the 
practicability  of  dropping  it  suddenly  into  the  water 
from  the  davits,  allowing  it  to  shove  off  instantly 
from  the  side  of  the  ship.  Xo  one  can  appreciate 
the  extreme  danger  of  lowering  a  boat  in  heavy 
weather  unless  he  has  witnessed  the  operation  itself. 

I  have  seen  a  boat  being  hoisted  to  the  davits;  one 
man  in  the  bow  at  the  forward  fall,  another  aft  to 
hook  the  after  fall;  the  boat  plunging  up  and  down, 
the  ship  rolling  fearfully,  as  only  gunboats  can  roll; 
the  falls  snatched  and  manned  ready  to  "  run  away 
with  her"  at  the  order.  The  officer  of  the  deck 
watches  for  a  smooth  time  to  "  hook  on,"  then  "  run 


70  ON   A   MAN-OF-WAK. 

her  up."  If  successful  the  boat  rises  above  the  rail 
before  the  ship  has  time  to  roll  again;  if  not,  the 
boat  flies  out  from  the  side  almost  at  right  angles 
with  the  davits,  and  crash!  comes  back  against  the 
ship's  side.  In  lowering  a  boat  the  bow  and  stern 
men  at  the  stoppers  have  to  look  alive  and  unhook 
the  falls  together,  or  the  after  one  a  little  the  first, 
as  should  the  after  fall  hold,  the  boat  will  inevitably 
swing  round  and  fill  as  the  ship  goes  ahead,  and  then 
good-bye  boat. 

A  LOWERING  APPARATUS. 

In  order  to  launch  a  boat  surely  and  successfully  a 
boat  lowering  apparatus  is  used  in  the  navy,  which  I 
here  briefly  describe.  After  the  boat  is  hoisted  the 
ordinary  fall  is  unhooked  and  the  boat  suspended  by 
chains,  the  link  of  chain  in  the  bow  and  stern  passing- 
over  a  tumbler  or  hinge,  the  chain  coming  then  to 
a  small  barrel  or  capstan  inboard.  When  the  boat  is 
to  be  lowered  the  crew  takes  its  place  and  the  boat  is 
lowered  by  the  chain  until  within  a  few  feet  of  the 
water,  when  by  pulling  a  small  chain,  which  runs 
round  the  inside  of  the  gunwale,  the  tumblers  are 
released,  the  hinges  fly  up,  allowing  the  links  of  chain 
to  slip  off,  and  the  boat  is  free,  bow  and  stern  at  the 
same  instant.  There  are  several  patents,  all  based  on 
the  principle  described,  for  lowering  boats  in  a  seaway. 


OK    A    MAX-OF-WAB.  71 

Usually  boat-falls  hook  to  a  ring  and  link  in  the 
bow  and  stern  of  the  boat,  and  it  is  difficult  for  the 
men  to  hook  on  simultaneously.  This  is  somewhat 
obviated  in  the  "  whale "  boats,  a  term  generally 
applied  to  boats  sharp  at  both  ends,  by  having  rings 
instead  of  hooks  in  the  lower  blocks  which  hook  on 
to  the  outside  stem  and  stern  of  boats  with  a  snap 
like  a  dog  chain,  to  keep  them  from  unhooking. 
When  a  boat  is  being  lowered  in  heavy  weather,  the 
the  sea  or  long  painter  in  the  bow  of  the  boat  is 
always  led  out  and  forward,  and  made  fast  in  the 
gangway  to  prevent  accidents. 

WHO  LET  GO  THAT  FOR'UD  FALL? 

There  is  an  amusing  sketch  in  a  book  of  etchings 
by  Park  Benjamin,  Jr.,  a  midshipman  in  the  navy, 
of  a  boat  hanging  by  the  stern  fall  to  the  davit,  the 
bow  nearly  in  the  water,  two  or  three  midshipmen  in 
various  ridiculous  attitudes  falling  into  the  water, 
with  another  striking  out  for  a  swim,  the  whole 
easily  explained  by  the  interrogation, 

"  Who  let  go  that  f or'ud  fall  ?  " 

AS  BELATED  BY  THE  MIDSHIPMAN. 

Speaking  of  boats  reminds  me  of  a  conversation 
which  took  place  in  a  boat  belonging  to  a  German 
frigate  on  one  occasion.  The  midshipman,  who  had 


72  ON   A   MAN-OF-WAK. 

charge  of  the  boat  had  been  visiting  one  of  our  ships 
and  was  much  pleased  with  the  position,  privilege 
and  duties  of  our  midshipmen  on  board,  which 
seemed  more  favorable  than  in  his  own  service.  On 
returning,  however,  to  the  landing  on  shore  accom- 
panied by  a  couple  of  our  midshipmen,  it  occurred  to 
him  to  ask: 

"  Wat  atority  do  you  haf  in  de  poats  ?  " 

"  Which  ?  "  said  the  Yankee. 

"  Veil,  I  mean  of  de  mens  don't  do  yoost  as  you 
say  vat  you  do  mit  'em  ?  " 

"  Oh!  "  replied  one,  "  I  report  them  to  the  first  lieu- 
tenant, when  I  return  to  the  ship,  and  have  them  pun- 
ished." 

"Ish  dat  all?"  said  the  German,  "I  shows  you 
mein  atority,"  and  he  accordingly  rose,  and  with  the 
convenient  tiller,  knocked  over  the  unoffending, 
stroke  oarsman;  and  with  the  remark, 

"  Dat  ish  mein  atority," 

he  resumed  his  seat,  perfectly  satisfied  that  when 
it  came  to  questions  of  real  business  his  service  was 
by  far  the  more  satisfactory. 

FIKE  QUARTERS. 

"  Ding  dong,"  "  ding  dong,"  went  the  ship's  bell 
rapidly,  and  from  the  instant  rush  from  every  part  of 


ON    A   MAN-OF-WAR.  73 

the  vessel  one  would  have  supposed  that  "  the  ship 
had  fallen  overboard." 

"  Fire  ! " 

Fire  is  a  terrible  thing  on  shore,  even  when  viewed 
from  A  place  of  safety,  but  transfer  the  scene  to  a 
ship,  with  the  realizing  sense  that  you  have  five  miles 
of  water  under  you,  unless  you  put  it  out  (I  mean  the 
fire),  and  you  can  probably  understand  the  deep  inter- 
est we  have  in  fires  on  board  ship.  In  order  to  have 
a  fire  drill  effective,  the  fact  that  it  is  a  drill,  and 
not  a  real  fire,  must  be  found  out  afterward.  The 
commanding  officer,  generally  when  he  feels  dys- 
peptic, I  think,  and  hates  mankind,  comes  browsing 
along,  and  capturing  a  small  messenger  boy  sends 
him  forward  quietly  to  ring  the  ship's  bell  like 
blazes — and  he  does.  I  think  I  never  have  seen  more 
perfect  contentment  on  the  face  of  a  boy  than  when 
charged  with  this  fiendish  errand;  and  he  rings  and 
rings,  until  throttled  by  some  forecastle  man,  who, 
fully  appreciating  his  enthusiasm,  having  been  there 
himself,  persuades  him  that  he  was  only  told  to  ring 
a  few  taps. 

At  the  signal  every  one  goes  to  his  quarters;  then 
the  first  lieutenant  calls  out: 

"  Fire  in  the  fore  hold." 

Down  come  the  windsails,  on  go  the  hatch  gratings 
and  tarpaulins;  every  one  in  the  masters'  division, 


74:  ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR. 

like  the  veterans  in  the  late  unpleasantness,  seems 
anxious  to  "  avoid  the  draft." 

Away  aft  goes  the  gunner  to  the  cabin  door  to  get 
the  keys  of  the  magazines  to  flood  them,  if  ordered. 
No.  1  gun's  crew  will  work  this  chain  pump,  No.  2 
this  one  in  the  main  chains;  this  division  of  fire- 
men form  a  line  of  buckets  from  starboard  gangway, 
that  one  from  port  gangway,  one  from  starboard 
quarter,  another  from  port  quarter,  and  so  on. 

Along  come  rushing  pipemen  with  two  lines  of 
hose  ready  to  flood  anything  and  everybody,  and  in 
less  than  one  minute  a  dozen  lines  of  buckets  and 
two  lines  of  pipes  await  the  order  to, 

"  Start  the  water." 

All  this  time  no  one  knows,  except  the  dyspeptic 
individual  previously  referred  to,  and  the  messenger, 
perhaps,  whether  there  is  a  fire  or  not. 

The  executive  officer  gets  even  with  the  captain 
sometimes,  however,  if  he  has  not  been  consulted, 
by  suddenly  discovering  a  fire  aft,  and, 

"  Fire  in  the  cabin," 

sends  a  delighted  stream  of  buckets  and  lines  of 
dampish  hose  into  the  cabin,  to  no  small  inconven- 
ience of  the  practical  joker  who  started  the  row. 

It  is  the  duty  of  the  commanding  officer  of  the 
marine  guard  to  post  sentries  over  the  boats  to  pre- 
vent their  being  lowered  without  orders  from  the 


OH   A  MJLJf-OF-WAK.  75 

proper  authority,  to  release  prisoners,  and  to  hold  the 
balance  of  his  guard  on  the  quarter-deck,  armed  and 
equipped,  for  use  where  needed  to  preserve  order  and 
discipline. 

If  at  sea,  or  under  way,  the  course  of  the  ship  is 
altered  to  bring  the  fire  to  leeward  as  much  as  pos- 
sible, the  reason  of  which  is  obvious. 


76  ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR. 


LETTER  VIII. 

ORDERED  TO  A  BLOCKADING  STATION" — GETTING  UNDER 

WEIGH  IN  A  HURRY CAPTURING  A  CONFEDERATE 

THE  RIO  GRANDE A  VERY  INCREDULOUS  CAPTAIN 

HOW    A   YOUNG   NAVIGATOR    SAILED    A    SHIP    ALONG 
THE  CREST  OF  THE  ANDES HOW  THE  CAPTAIN  WAS 

CONVINCED THE  PECULIAR  HABITS  OF  SAILORS  OF 

DIFFERENT  NATIONS — CUTTING  OUT  A  SLOOP — TWO 
SAILORS'  YARNS. 

Shortly  after  our  arrival  at  Ship  Island,  Gulf  of 
Mexico,  we  were  ordered  by  the  flag  officer,  D.  G. 
Farragut,  to  blockade  the  mouth  of  the  Rio  Grande 
River.  So,  one  morning  bright  and  early  the  pipes  of 
the  boatswain's  mates  were  heard,  followed  by  the 
repeated  cry  of, 

"  All  hands," 

"All  hands," 

"  Up  all  hammocks," 

"  Now  tumble  up  there," 

"  Show  a  leg," 

"  Get  out  of  there,  you  idlers," 

"  Clear  the  berth-deck,  master-at-arms," 

"  No  one  excused," 

"  It's  up  anchor  this  morning." 

In   ten  minutes   the   hammocks  were  all  up  and 


ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR.  41 

stowed  in  the  nettings,  and  the  captains  of  the  differ- 
ent parts  of  the  ship  were  quickly  moving  to  and  fro, 
quietly  directing  their  men  so  as  to  get  as  ready  as 
they  dared  before  the  order  "  up  anchor  "  was  actually 
given. 

In  a  few  moments  after  the  anchor  was  hove  short, 
and  in  obedience  to  the  order  of  the  executive  officer, 

"  Aloft,  sail-loosers," 

the  men  swarmed  aloft,  and  in  less  time  than  it 
takes  to  write  it  the  gallant  little  "  Portsmouth  "  was 
under  way  with  all  plain  sail,  standing  to  the  south- 
ward and  westward,  bound  for  "  La  Boca  del  Rio  del 
Norte,"  as  the  mouth  of  the  Rio  Grande  is  called  by 
our  Mexican  friends  on  the  south  side. 

THE    FIBST   PRIZE. 

We  sailed  along  pleasantly  without  incident 
until  almost  within  sight  of  the  coast,  when  we  dis- 
covered a  schooner  standing  to  the  southward,  which 
we  quickly  overhauled.  Running  up  the  French  flag 
we  were  much  pleased  to  be  answered  by  the  display 
of  the  rebel  stars  and  bars.  Amid  considerable 
excitement  a  boat  was  lowered,  and  with  twelve  men 
armed  to  the  teeth  I  pulled  off  for  the  schooner,  the 
"Portsmouth"  at  the  same  time  hauling  down  the 
French  flag  and  displaying  the  stars  and  stripes  at 
the  peak.  We  pulled  alongside,  and  clambering  up 


78  ON   A   MAN-OF-WAR. 

the  side  of  the  schooner  (I  with  my  sword  in  my 
teeth,  being  armed  to  the  teeth),  we  sprang  on  board, 
prepared  to  cut  down  almost  anything — excepting, 
of  course  (I  cannot  tell  a  lie),  any  cherry  trees. 
There  was  one  poor  devil  on  deck  who  was  quietly 
steering  the  schooner.  After  lowering  the  sails  I 
boldly,  yet  cautiously,  advanced  upon  this  man  and 
sternly  asked, 

"  Where  is  the  captain,  sir  ?  " 

"  Oh  !  we're  all  captains  here,"  he  answered  noncha- 

lently,  "but  Captain  B is  below,"  he  added,  "if 

you  want  him" 

We  persuaded  the  captain  and  all  hands  to  come  on 
deck,  and  found  that  our  prize  was  the  schooner 
"  Wave,"  from  New  Orleans,  bound  to  the  Rio  Grande. 
We  transferred  his  cargo  of  sugar  to  one  of  the  sup- 
ply steamers  shortly  afterward,  and  used  the  schooner 
itself  as  a  target  for  exercise  at  great  guns. 

I  think  I  got  some  $43  prize  money  about  twelve 
years  afterward  from  the  sale  of  the  "Wave's" 
cargo. 

The  next  day  we  anchored  off 

THE  MOUTH  OF  THE  RIO  GRANDE, 

where  some  seventy  merchant  vessels  lay  at  anchor. 
I  was  surprised  to  find  that  the  mouth  of  the  river 
appeared  to  be  only  a  couple  of  hundreds  of  yards  in 
width  instead  of  a  mile,  as  I  had  always  imagined. 


ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR.  79 

I  found  that  the  commander  shared  my  opinion, 
and  decidedly  refused  to  believe  me,  as  navigator 
of  the  ship,  declining  to  accept  any  such  dirty  little 
river  as  the  great  river  of  the  north.  In  vain  I 
pleaded  that  the  sun  could  not  lie,  that  figures  were 
figures.  He  declined  to  accept  the  situation,  until 
I  returned  from  boarding  most  of  the  vessels  at 
anchor  and  reported  that  they  were  all  under  the 
same  impression. 

SAILING  OVEK  THE  ANDES. 

I  could  not  blame  him.  He  knew  the  story  of  a 
young  officer  who  was  attached  to  a  ship  bound  for 
Rio.  as  navigator.  The  captain  distrusted  his  ability 
and  secured  all  the  charts  of  the  ship  so  the  navigator 
could  not  see  them,  requiring  him  to  send  in  the  lati- 
tude and  longitude  every  day  as  usual,  ascertained 
by  observations  of  the  sun.  On  the  arrival  of  the 
ship  in  Rio  the  captain  showed  the  young  mathema- 
tician that  by  his  reckoning,  as  sent  in  from  day  to 
day,  the  ship  had  skirted  the  Andes  Mountains  all 
the  way  down,  being  impartially  sometimes  on  one 
side  and  sometimes  on  the  other  of  the  lofty  range, 
congratulating  him  on  the  feat  of  balancing  this 
sloop-of-war  successfully  on  a  mountain  peak,  23,000 
feet  in  height,  without  knowing  it. 

Of  course,  the  navigator  not  having  access  to  the 


80  ON   A   MAN-OF-WAR. 

charts,  could  not  see  where  his  latitude  and  longitude 
would  place  the  ship,  and  supposed  all  the  time  that 
he  was  the  equal,  if  not  the  superior  of  Mr.  C.  Col- 
umbus, as  a  navigator  of  the  seas.  Well, 

THE  CAPTAIN  NEVER  LET  UP 

on  me;  he  would  not  believe  that  that  little  stream 
was  the  Rio  Grande  River.  I  took  sights  every  day 
and  required  the  midshipmen  to  take  sights  with  me, 
showing,  accurately,  our  position  by  the  sun;  he 
would  not  believe  it,  and,  had  it  not  been  that  an 
American,  who  had  lived  in  Matamoras  for  ten  years, 
and  came  armed  with  a  permit  from  Hon.  W.  H. 
Seward,  Secretary  of  State,  to  trade,  assured  him  on 
his  word  of  honor,  that  the  opening  in  question,  teas 
the  Rio  Grande,  he  never  would  have  believed  it,  and 
the  baleful  stigma  of  deception,  want  of  accuracy, 
and  general  untrustworthiness,  would  have  been 
equally  shared  between  the  sun  of  our  solar  system 
and  the  son  of  my  father. 

The  really  good  old  gentleman  has,  however,  long 
since  passed  away,  and  I  hope  that  he  reached  the 
port  for  which  he  was  bound,  his  course  being 
marked  out  for  him  by  a  skillful  and  unerring  navi- 
gator in  whom  he  could  have  implicit  trust. 

I  had  a  great  deal  of  amusement  in 


ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR.  81 

BOARDING  THE  DIFFERENT  VESSELS 

lying  at  anchor  off  the  port.  The  Englishmen 
would  hospitably  offer  a  "  drop  a  sherry,"  proffering  a 
brimming  tumbler  to  carry  out  the  idea;  the  French- 
men showed  their  friendly  feeling  in  cognac,  and  the 
German  kindness  overflowed  in  the  shape  of  Schie- 
dam schnapps,  and  Holland  gin.  One  old  German 
had  a  little  old  galiot,  that  looked  as  if  it  had  served 
as  a  tender  to  old  Yon  Tromp,  when  he  carried  the 
broom  at  his  masthead  in  the  English  Channel;  he 
had  his  wife,  nurse  and  four  children  on  board, 
cooped  up  in  the  little  cabin,  10x12  feet,  and  they  all 
seemed  as  fat  and  contented  as  if  they  occupied  a 
Schloss  Unter  den  Linden,  Berlin.  He  was  very  hos- 
pitable, and  was  profuse  in  his  offers  of  "  yust  a  ledle 
more  cherry  cordial." 

The  appearance  of  a  little  German-American, 
shortly  after,  showed  that  the  climate  of  Mexico — 
Texas,  tempered  by  the  cool  breeze  of  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico,  must  have  assimilated  greatly  with  that  of 
their  own  Fatherland. 

We  remained  on  the  coast  of  Texas  some  two  or 
three  months,  part  of  the  time  at  anchor,  and  part  of 
the  time  cruising  off  and  on.  Now  and  then  the 
monotony  would  be  varied  by  a  terrible  gale  of  wind 
called  a  "  Nortlier,"  which  put  our  ground-tackle  or 

6 


82  ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR. 

our  canvas  to  a  severe  test,  according  as  we  were  at 
anchor  or  under  sail. 


THE  OTHER  PRIZE. 

One  noon  we  saw  a  sloop  standing  in  shore  toward 
the  mouth  of  the  river.  I  started  in  pursuit  with  a 
twelve-oared  cutter,  and  we  had  a  neck  and  neck  pull 
to  cut  him  off  before  getting  within  range  of  the 
guns  at  the  mouth  of  river.  Fortunately  for  us  there 
was  not  much  wind,  and  we  captured  the  sloop 
within  a  mile  and  a  half  of  her  destination.  It 
proved  to  be  from  New  Orleans,  with  a  cargo  for 
Matamoras.  So,  we  transferred  the  cargo  to  our  own 
ship,  and  sunk  the  sloop. 

I  believe  I  got  some  $25  prize  money  from  the  cap- 
ture some  ten  years  after. 

Being  short  of  fresh  water,  the  commander  resolved 
to  go  to  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi  for  a  supply, 
and  we  accordingly  got  under  weigh,  and  after  a 
a  pleasant  trip  of  a  few  days  we  anchored  off  South- 
west Pass  in  time  to  participate  in  the  capture  of 
Forts  Jackson  and  St.  Philip. 

Apropos  of  Mexico, 

THEY  TELL  A  STORY 

of  the  captain  of  a  brig  at  Vera  Cruz  who  took  a 
sailor  who  spoke  Spanish,  on  shore  with  him  to  inter- 


OX    A   MAX-OF-WAK.  83 

pret  for  him.  The  conversation  was  somewhat  as 
follows: 

Sailor— "  HaUa  luted  Espanol  Senor  f  " 

"Si,  Senor,  pcrfectamentc  Ken,"  replied  the  Mexi- 
can. 

"  Bucno,"  said  the  sailor,  "  in  cuantas  dia*  can  you 
make  a  new  main  yard  for  the  brig  ?  " 

"No  entiendo""  (I  don't  understand),  said  the  Mexi- 
can. 

"No  en  ten  day?  "  said  the  sailor. 

"  Oh,  come  on,  captain,  he  says  he  can't  do  it  in 
ten  days.*' 

Another  linguist  on  shore,  at  the  same  port,  came 
up  excitedly  to  a  native  and  asked: 

"Look  here,  Senor,  ha  visto  usted  a  caballero  a 
cavorting  down  the  streets  on  a  derned  big  gray 
horse  with  a  Mexican  saddle  on  ?  n 

"No  entiendo?"  said  the  native  with  a  peculiar 
shrug  of  his  shoulders  pertaining  to  the  race. 

"No  entiendo  ? "  don't  you  understand  your  own 
lingo,  you  infernal  Dago  ? 

The  boatswain  of  the  U.  S.  Portsmouth  was  very 
profane,  and  showed  a  great  deal  of  disgust  at  the 
agricultural  aspect  of  many  of  the  crew,  really  good 
men,  but  quite  unused  to  a  man-of-war.  One  day  he 
apostrophized  them  on  the  foreyard  somewhat  as 
follows: 


84  ON    A   MAN-OF-WAR. 

"Pick  up  that  sail,  will  you ?" 

"No!  pass  in  the  leech  first;  that's  no  way  to  stow 
that  bunt,  Oh!  you  farmers!" 

"Hold  on  with  that  bunt  jig,  will  you?" 

"  Who  in  the  d 1  told  you  to  pull  up  that  bunt 

jig?    My   grandmother  would  make  a  better  sailor 
than  you." 

"Look  aloft;  the  devil  would  have  been  a  sailor 
only  he  couldn't  look  aloft,"  etc. 

One  day  hearing  me  hail  the  lookout  aloft, 

"  Fore  topmast  crosstrees  there," 
several  times  without  reply,  the  boatswain  who  was 
standing  on  the  forecastle  said: 

"  That's  a  farmer  up  there,  sir;  he  don't  know  that 
he's  on  the  crosstrees,  say  haymow  and  he'll  jump 
overboard." 


ON   A   MAN-OF-WAR.  85 


LETTER  IX. 

THE     MISSISSIPPI    FLEET    AT    THE     CAPTURE     OF    NEW 
ORLEANS. 

About  two  weeks  before  the  passage  of  Forts  Jack- 
son and  St.  Philip  by  the  squadron  under  the  command 
of  the  flag  officer,  David  G.  Farragut,  I  was  attached 

to  the  United  States  sloop-of-war  P ;  we  had 

come  to  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi  for  water,  and 
Farragut  directed  that  we  should  remain  and  join  in 
the  attack  on  the  forts. 

At  this  time,  April,  1862,  the  fleet,  of  some  twenty 
odd  sail  including  the  Hartford  (flagship),  the  Brook- 
lyn, Iroquois,  Westfield  and  others,  were  anchored 
below  the  point  where  the  river  made  a  sharp  turn 
before  reaching  the  forts,  while  Porter's  mortar  flo- 
tilla, some  twenty  or  more  schooners,  lay  along 
behind  the  point,  close  in  shore.  The  mortar  schoon- 
ers had  clothed  the  tops  of  their  low  masts  with 
branches  of  trees,  so  that  they  could  scarcely  be 
distinguished,  as  they  lay  behind  the  thick  trees  lin- 
ing the  river  bank.  Our  commander,  accordingly, 
ordered  our  spars  to  be  dressed  in  the  same  way,  and 
we  loomed  up  like  a  line  of  battle  ship,  securing  us 
the  honor  of  a  visit  from  the  flag  officer,  with  a  sharp 
order  to, 


86  ON   A   MAN-OF-WAR. 

"  Take  those  things  down," 

much  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  executive  officer  and 
the  chagrin  of  the  captain. 

FIRE  RAFTS 

While  thus  lying  at  anchor,  a  favorite  device  of 
the  Confederates  was  to  send  down  enormous  fire 
rafts,  by  which  they  hoped  to  fire  some  of  the  ships 
anchored  in  the  stream.  As  the  current  ran,  at  that 
high  condition  of  the  water,  at  nearly  five  knots  an 
hour,  the  arrival  of  these  rafts  excited  a  lively  inter- 
est, I  can  assure  you. 

"  Send  boats  to  tow  fire  rafts," 

would  be  the  signal,  nearly  every  night  from  the  flag- 
ship, and  away  would  go  four  of  our  boats  toward 
the  approaching  raft  coming  down  the  river.  Two 
of-  the  large  launches  from  the  heavier  classed  vessels 
would  throw  grapnels  into  the  rafts,  and  the  other 
boats  forming  two  lines  ahead,  sometimes  thirty  in  a 
line,  would  tow  the  raft  slowly,  but  surely,  across  the 
river,  allowing  it  to  ground  and  burn  itself  harm- 
lessly out. 

One  night  a  monster  raft,  filled  with  turpentine, 
tar  and  rosin,  came  down  the  river  and  created  con- 
siderable alarm.  The  boats  promptly  tackled  it,  as 
usual,  but  found  that  they  could  not  stem  the  current, 
as  the  raft  was  unusually  large  and  difficult  to  handle. 


OH  A   MAJf-OF-WAR.  87 

About  six  hundred  yards  from  us,  lay,  at  anchor, 
a  store  ship  filled  with  powder,  shell  and  ammunition 
for  the  squadron;  she  was  directly  in  the  line  of  the 
approaching  and  rapidly  descending  fire  raft;  the 
boats  made  superhuman  efforts  to  tow  it  across  the 
river  and  swing  the  raft  clear,  but  it  was  evident  that 
they  would  be  unsuccessful,  when  suddenly  the  West- 
field,  formerly  one  of  the  Xew  York  ferryboats,  see- 
ing the  danger  that  threatened  the  whole  squadron, 
promptly  slipped  her  chain,  steamed  boldly  up,  and. 
with  two  streams  of  water  playing  over  her  bow,  and 
her  crew  at  "fire  quarters,"  put  her  nose  fairly 
against  the  raft  and  drove  it  square  across  the  river, 
where  it  grounded  safely  and  burned  out. 

"Chm!" 

,  You  could  have  heard  that  cheer,  from  nearly  7,000 
throats,  ten  miles. 

OXE  OF  THE  MORTAR  SCHOONERS 

lay  about  100  yards  ahead  of  us,  and  a  continuous 
line  of  them  lay  farther  on  up  stream.  Every  five 
or  ten  minutes  throughout  the  night,  bang !  went  a 
thirteen-inch  shell,  up,  up;  its  course  marked,  like  a 
meteor,  by  the  burning  fuse;  then,  turning  down, 
down,  swiftly  plunging  into  Fort  Jackson.  By  care- 
fully weighing  the  powder,  and  noting  the  angle  of 
inclination  during  the  day,  they  were  enabled,  at 


88  ON   A   MAN-OF-WAB. 

night,  by  means  of  range  lights  in  the  trees,  to  keep 
up  an  accurate  fire,  continuous  night  and  day,  raining 
those  terrible  shells  constantly  into  the  devoted  fort; 
and,  as  by  their  explosion,  they  tore  great  chasms  in 
the  ground  and  casemates,  it  must  have  been  terrible, 
indeed,  for  the  defenders,  who  were  powerless  to 
reply. 

One  night  a  great  conflagration  illumined  the  fort, 
and  we  learned  afterward  that  it  was  caused  by  the 
burning  of  the  citadel,  fired  by  the  explosion  of  a 
shell  from  the  mortar  fleet.  As  it  happened,  the  fire 
was  so  near  the  magazine  that  it  could  not  have  been 
opened,  and  had  we  gone  by  that  night,  we  would 
have  suffered  but  little  from  the  guns  of  Fort  Jack- 
son and  saved  many  valuable  lives. 

RUNNING  THE  FOKTS. 

On  the  night  of  the  24th  of  April,  1862,  the  signal — 
two  red  lights  at  the  peak  of  the  flagship — to  move 
was  observed,  and  the  vessels  got  under  weigh,  and 
steamed  slowly  up  the  river.  The  chain,  which  the 
rebels  had  stretched  across  the  river,  and  which  had 
been  the  occasion  of  many  an  exciting  and  daring 
attempt,  had  been  finally  cut,  and  nothing  remained 
but  to  go  by  the  forts.  It  seemed  almost  like  a 
plunge  into  the  hereafter,  for  the  "  rebs,"  too,  had  gun- 
boats above  the  forts,  and  terrible  rams,  ironclads, 


ON   A    MAN-OF-WAR.  89 

torpedoes,  and  what  else  we  knew  not,  and  to  get  by 
the  forts  didn't  seem  so  very  desirable  a  thing  to  do 
after  all;  however,  there  was  the  order,  and  there 
was  no  help  for  it.  Our  ship  being  a  sailing  sloop-of- 
war,  was  lashed  alongside  a  steamer  to  be  towed  up 
opposite  Fort  Jackson  and  anchored,  to  divert  the 
attention  of  that  fort  as  much  as  possible  from  the 
steamers.  There  is  such  a  thing  as  being  too  conspic- 
uous, in  having  too  much  attention,  and  I  would  have 
preferred  to  have  been  one  of  those  "  born  to  blush 
unseen,"  and  waste  my — what  do  you  call  it '? — some- 
where else.  Well,  history  tells 

HOW  THE  GALLAVT   FLEET  WEST  BY, 

amid  a  terrible  cannonade  from  both  forts,  the  east- 
erly column  of  battle  passing  within  300  yards 
of  the  guns  of  St.  Philip,  150  of  them  grinning 
defiance,  almost  on  a  level  with  the  river  bank;  his- 
tory tells  how  the  mortar  fleet  rained  thirteen-inch 
shells  into  the  forts  (I  counted  thirteen  in  the  air  at 
once);  history  tells  how  the  Varuna,  running  fast 
and  ahead  of  everybody,  engaged  the  Governor  Mor- 
gan broadside  and  broadside,  and  almost  alongside, 
until  suddenly  a  little  ram  scooted  under  the  stern  of 
the  Morgan  and  rammed  the  Varuna  so  she  sunk  at 
once,  her  officers  and  crew  crowding  on  to  the  fore- 
castle, which  was  just  out  of  water,  alternately 


90  ON   A   MAN-OF-WAB. 

swearing  at,  and  dodging  the  shots  from  the  passing 
"  rebs  "  flying  up  the  river  to  escape  the  triumphant 
ascending  fleet.  History  tells  how  the  gallant  old 
Mississippi,  a  side-wheel  wooden  frigate,  which  didn't 
know  anything  about  rams,  chased  the  dreaded  ram, 
Manassas,  until  she  ran  ashore  and  was  fired  by  her 
crew.  Somebody  tells  how 

THE  FIEST  LIEUTENANT  OF  THE  BROOKLYN 

(she  was  fighting  her  starboard  battery  and  there 
wasn't  a  soul  on  the  port  side),  happening  to  look  to 
port,  saw  the  Manassas  approaching  and  about  to  ram 
the  ship,  recognized  an  old  shipmate  and  a  former 
officer  of  the  Brooklyn  itself,  in  command  of  her,  and 
shouted: 

"  Warley,  you  d d  scoundrel,  don't  you  run  into 

us!" 

and  giving  the  Brooklyn  a  rank  sheer  to  starboard 
avoided  the  full  force  of  the  blow,  and  not  being  able 
to  do  anything  else,  danced  up  and  down  on  the 
bridge  and  fired  his  revolver  at  the  ironclad;  history 
tells  how  the  U.  S.  S.  P participated  in  the  gal- 
lant attack,  etc.,  but  history  is  painfully  silent  as  to 
me,  as  to  my  heroism,  my-a-undaunted  courage  as  I 
led  my  men-a-a-below  the  water-line.  Now,  after 
waiting  fifteen  years,  I  am  permitted  to  tell  the  story 
myself — in  print,  too,  and  not  at  ten  cents  a  line, 
either. 


ON    A   MAN-OF-WAR.  91 

FIG1ITIXG  FOBT  JACKSOX. 

Well,  we  steamed  up  until  our  guns  would  bear  on 
Fort  Jackson  and  anchored,  and  our  escort  left  us  to 
the  mercy  of  the  rebel  guns.  A  line  was  sent  on 
shore  from  aft,  and  our  broadside  was  brought  to  bear 
by  springing  the  ship.  As  soon  as  I  had  seen  the 
anchor  chains  secure,  as  that  was  in  my  department, 
being  navigator  of  the  ship,  I  repaired  to  the  topgal- 
lant forecastle  where  my  division  was  working  an 
eight-inch  shell,  and  a  thirty-pound  rifle  gun.  Being 
short  of  men,  I  acted  as  captain  of  the  rifle  gun,  and 
sighted  and  fired  the  gun  myself.  The  daylight  was 
just  breaking  behind  us,  and  we  were  as  pretty  a  tar- 
get as  one  ever  saw.  I  could  see  the  flash  of  the 
rebel  guns,  and  hear  the  whistle  of  the  shot,  as  it 
approached  nearer  and  nearer,  until  it  either  struck 
short,  or  passing  over  screamed: 

"Wharishe?   wharishe?" 

and  plunged  into  the  water  beyond  us.  I  trained, 
sighted  and  fired  away  with  my  rifle  gun,  however, 
taking  a  good  long  while  to  sight,  while  crouched 
somewhat  behind  it,  apparently  only  safer  than  when 
standing  up. 

Just  then  the  eight-inch  gun,  on  being  fired, 
jammed  the  carriage  of  the  rifle  gun  so  that  I  could 
no  longer  train  it;  in  vain  we  tried  to  get  the  eight- 
inch  out  of  the  way — we  could  not  budge  it;  shot  and 


92  ON   A   MAN-OF-WAR. 

shell  were  striking  and  exploding  all  around  us;  one 
or  two  gunboats  that  failed  to  get  by  had  returned 
and  passed  down  astern  of  us;  the  fleet  had  got  by 
and  our  mission  was  over;  but  the  fort  had  its  mis- 
sion too,  there  being  no  one  else  in  sight — all  of  its 
guns  that  would  bear,  were  trained  on  us — us,  who 
only  asked  to  be  let  severely  alone. 

ONE  LONG  SHELL 

(I  learned  afterward  that  it  was  really  only  seven  and 
a  quarter  inches  in  diameter  and  thirty  inches  in 
length,  but  it  looked  as  long  then  as  the  stock  of  the 
bower  anchor  and  as  big  around  as  a  barrel)  struck 
short  about  twenty  feet  from  us,  and  fortunately  for 
us,  on  the  side  of  a  wave,  and  rose,  passing  high  over 
the  ship.  When  it  struck  the  wave  first  I  saw  it  as 
plain  as  if  it  were  floating  on  the  water,  and  half 
closed  my  eyes,  certain  that  it  would  ricochet  and  hit 
me  right  in  the  stomach.  I  drew  a  long  breath  when 
it  passed  over,  and  that  is  what  I  could  not  have  done 
if  it  had  followed  the  course  I  had  marked  out  for  it. 

"  Whew  !  bang  ! " 

came  a  sixty-four  pound  shot  over  from  aft.  The 
captain,  first  lieutenant,  paymaster  and  clerk,  humbly 
saluting  it  as  it  p.  p.  c'd  over  the  poop  and  struck  one 
of  my  gun's  crew,  just  five  feet  ten  inches  below 
where  I  stood,  bounded  up,  and  expending  itself 


OX   A    MAX-OF-WAB.  93 

under  the  topgallant  forecastle,  about  ten  inches  from 
my  feet,  rolled  harmlessly  down  in  the  water  ways. 
Well,  we  slipped  and  got  out  of  there  soon,  very 
soon.  The  rapid  current  of  the  Mississippi  never 
seemed  so  much  overrated  as  it  did  to  us,  when  we 
depended  entirely  upon  it  to  take  us  out  of  reach  of 
the  shot  and  shell  which  the  fort  so  carelessly  flung 
after  us. 

The  poor  fellow  who  was  struck  was  quickly  car- 
ried to  the  main  hatch  and  lowered,  on  a  litter  ready 
for  the  purpose,  to  the  main  hold,  where  the  surgeons 
were  ready  in  attendance,  the  blood  pouring  from  his 
leg  in  great  splashes,  which,  crimson  as  it  was, 
blanched  the  faces  of  many  who  stood  at  their  guns 
wondering  if  they  would  be  next. 

The  doctors  took  off  his  leg,  but  the  shock  was  too 
great,  and  it  was  my  painful  duty,  the  following  day, 
to  read  the  service  over  his  now  forgotten  grave  on  a 
small  island  in  the  Mississippi  River. 

AXD  WE  AT.T.  WEBE  DODGING. 

When  the  shot  and  shell  were  flying  the  thickest, 
an  old  captain  of  the  forecastle,  who  was  in  command 
of  the  eight-inch  gun,  was  dancing  and  ducking 
around,  and  I  yelled  at  him  angrily  (I  was  even  a 
trifle  more  frightened  than  he), 

"  What  in  the  deuce  are  you  doing,  yon  can't 
dodge  'em." 


i  ON    A    MAN-OF-WAK. 

"  Oh,  yes,  you  can,"  said  he,  "  I  did  at  Peiho." 

It  seems  that  the  old  fellow  had  never  been  under 
tire  before,  excepting  when  some  of  our  ships  joined 
the  English  in  an  attack  on  two  forts  in  China,  and 
he  dated  everything  from  the  attack  on  the  Peiho 
forts. 

I  could  not  help  laughing,  frightened  as  I  was,  as 
I  stood  on  the  topg'll't  forecastle,  and  looked  aft. 
Whiz,  would  come  a  shell  close  over  the  poop,  and 
down  would  duck  all  hands.  It  was  no  evidence  of 
courage  at  all,  for  one  ducked  involuntarily  the  same 
as  one  winks  when  the  eye  is  threatened;  but  Pay,  you 
ought  to  have  seen  Pay.  He  had  been  flattered  by 
being  made  signal  officer,  though  there  were  no  sig- 
nals to  make,  and  was  stationed  on  the  poop.  When 
I  saw  him  he  was  holding  on  to  the  mizzen  rigging 
and  his  feet,  in  a  spasm  of  ducking,  having  slipped 
off  the  ladder,  he  was  dangling  about  eight  feet 
above  the  quarter  deck,  and  holding  on  so  tight  to 
the  mizzen  rigging  as  to  squeeze  the  tar  out  of  it. 

"  I  suppose  Mr.  D ,"  said  a  young  lady  once  to 

me,  "  that  you  get  so  thoroughly  accustomed  to  dan- 
ger and  being  under  fire  that  you  don't  mind  it  at  all." 

"  On  the  contrary,"  I  replied,  "  I  never  have  been  in 
serious  danger  more  than  seven  or  eight  times  since  I 
have  been  in  the  service,  and  I  assure  you,  that  I  was 
more  frightened  the  last  time,  than  the  first." 


OS  A  MAX-OF-WAK.  95 

"Why,"  regained  she,  "a  friend  of  mine,  a  Mr. 
Smith,  he  was  a  master's  mate,  I  think,  in  the  Missis- 
sippi squadron,  told  me  that  he  really  enjoyed  it. 
and  wasn't  one  hit  afraid." 

FAKKAGTTTS  JOKE  OX  BUTLER. 

I  must  tell  you  of  a  joke  on  Gen.  Benjamin 
F.  Butler,  perpetrated  by  Admiral  Farragut.  As 
Farragut  was.  strictly  speaking,  not  much  of  a  joker, 
it  is  but  fair  that  he  should  be  given  credit  for  fAi> 
one. 

The  Tennessee  came  dashing  up  the  river  to  Xew 
Orleans,  one  day.  and  anchored  near  the  flagship;  the 
captain  being  on  shore  in  the  afternoon,  was  met  by 
an  officer  who  stated  that  Gen.  Butler  would  be 
pleased  to  see  him. 

He  accordingly  waited  on  the  general,  who  sternly 
took  him  to  task  for  passing  the  quarantine,  coming. 
as  he  did,  from  Pensacola,  where  there  was  yellow 

fever  raging.  As  soon  as  Capt.  J could  recover 

from  his  astonishment,  he.  somewhat  sarcastically, 
reminded  Gen.  Butler  that  he  was  a  naval  officer, 
under  the  command  of  an  officer  of  the  navy  near  at 
Hrr*1,  to  whom  he  was  amenable,  and  that  Flag  Offi- 
cer Farragut  would  probably  be  the  person  proper 
for  him  to  complain  to. 

In  a  rage.  Gen.  Butler  sent  a  communication  to  Far- 


96  ON   A   MAN-OF-WAR. 

ragut,  asking  "  if  the  quarantine  laws  were  to  be 
obeyed." 

"  Certainly,"  replied  the  admiral. 

"  Then,"  wrote  the  autocrat,  "  the  Tennessee  hav- 
ing violated  the  quarantine,  and  having  communi- 
cated with  the  other  vessels,  the  whole  squadron  is 
hereby  placed  in  quarantine  and  will  communicate 
only  with  the  flagship,  which  will  be  permitted  to 
use  the  landing  at  the  foot  of  Canal  street  only." 

The  unparalleled  assurance  shown  in  placing  the 
fleet,  upon  which  the  safety  of  the  city  solely 
depended,  the  rebels  having  30,000  men  at  Camp 
Moore,  only  a  few  miles  distant,  in  quarantine,  was 
immense. 

Farragut,  was,  however,  equal  to  the  occasion,  and 
calmly  acquiesced  as  to  the  quarantine,  but  added 
that  the  proper  place  to  ride  out  a  quarantine  would 
be  at  the  quarantine  grounds,  thirty  miles  below  the 
city. 

Gen.  Butler  at  once  hastened  to  withdraw  his 
demand,  not  being  quite  sure  but  that  he  would  have 
reached  the  quarantine  station  himself,  at  about  the 
same  time  with  Farragut,  had  the  squadron  been  sent 
away  from  New  Orleans  for  as  much  as  twenty-four 
hours. 

I  was  once  attached  to  a  vessel  that  anchored  in 
the  harbor  of  Funchal,  Madeira,  and  the  first  thing 


ON   A    MAX-OF-WAK.  97 

we  did,  when  we  got  ashore,  was  to  take  a  horseback 
ride  round  that  beautiful  island. 

Some  of  the  men  had  liberty  also,  and,  of  course, 
every  one  of  them  captured  a  horse  as  soon  as  they 
got  fairly  ashore.  About  half  way  up  the  mountain 
we  came  across  a  little  mizzen  topman,  flushed  and 
evidently  very  warm,  riding  a  spirited  little  horse, 
with  a  stone  tied  up  in  a  silk  handkerchief  slung  to 
his  tail. 

The  first  lieutenant  laughed  and  said: 

"What  are  you  doing  with  that  handkerchief, 
Brown  ?  " 

"  Why,  you  see,  sir,"  said  Brown,  "  that  when  I 
first  hitched  her  up  she  pitched  badly,  being  too 
much  by  the  head,  so  I  just  rigged  this  stone  on  aft 
and  brought  her  down  to  her  bearings,  and  she  sails 
now  like  a  clipper,  sir." 


08  ON    A   1IAX-OF-WAB. 


LETTER  X. 

TRANSFERRED  TO  THE  SCIOTO — A  TRIBUTE  OP   RESPECT 

TO  THE  MEMORY  OF    A  BRAVE    OFFICER INCIDENTS 

OF  RIVER  DUTY A  PRACTICAL   JOKE  ON  AN  ACTING 

MASTER — A    LARGE     OWL    AND    A  SMART    CAT — THE 

TALE     OF      A    PIG A    COOL     CAPTAIN A    RATHER 

EXPENSIVE  ATTEMPT  TO  ANCHOR — A  FOG  BANK. 

One  afternoon,  in  the  year  1862,  the  gunboat  Scioto 
was  coming  down  the  Mississippi  River  on  her  way 
to  New  Orleans.  As  she  turned  the  bend  near 
Donaldsonville  a  battery  of  field  artillery  opened  on 
her,  together  with  a  fire  of  small  arms  from  some 
troops. 

AN   ENGAGEMENT. 

The  Scioto  rounded  to  promptly  and  returned  the 
fire  with  her  eleven-inch  shell  gun,  her  rifled  Parrot 
and  twenty-four  pound  howitzer,  and  succeeded  in 
driving  off  the  attacking  party,  but  did  not  escape 
without  loss  herself.  A  six-pound  shot  struck  the 
executive  officer,  who  was  standing  near  the  eleven- 
inch  gun,  tearing  off  his  arm  and  striking  him  in  the 
side  and  hip,  causing  his  death  in  a  few  minutes. 
One  man  lost  an  arm  and  one  or  two  others  were 
wounded  by  splinters. 

On  the  arrival  of  the  Scioto  at  New  Orleans  I  was 


OX   A  MAX-OF-WAB-  99 

at  once  detached  from  the  frigate  Mississippi  and 
ordered  as  executive  officer  in  the  place  of  the  dead 
lieutenant  whom  I  knew  so  welL  When  the  body 
was  taken  to  the  steamer  for  transportation  to  his 
home  in  Massachusetts,  two  lines  of  boats  from  the 
different  ships  of  the  squadron,  forming  a  procession 
nearly  half  a  mile  in  length,  testified  to  the  ready 
sympathy  shown  to  a  brave  gentleman,  by  his  asso- 
ciates, in  the  only  way  left  to  them. 
We  were  on  this 

GUERRILLA  DUTY, 

up  and  down  the  river  for  nearly  a  year,  and  I  assure 
you  we  were  kept  busy.  One  day  we  were  protecting 
a  steamer  taking  sugar  at  a  plantation.  The  squad  of 
soldiers  went  out,  as  usual,  toward  the  sugar  house, 
were  surprised  by  guerrillas,  the  morning  beinsj 
foggy,  and  shot  down.  We  heard  the  shots  and 
opened  fire  in  the  direction,  and  by  good  luck,  sent  a 
shell  right  in  the  midst  of  the  band,  though  invisible 
to  us  on  account  of  the  dense  fog.  We  brought  in 
the  corporal  of  the  party,  who,  with  another  wounded 
by  the  guerrilla  shots,  had  hidden  in  a  cane-field. 
The  corporal  stated  that  they  were  searching  for  him 
and  would  have  got  him,  but  that  our  shell  came 
right  in  amongst  them  and  drove  them  off. 


100  ON    A   MAN-OF-WAK. 

EPILEPTIC  OFFICERS. 

On  another  occasion  I  was  just  ready  to  go  on 
shore,  with  a  party,  to  see  if  I  could  find  a  couple  of 
howitzers  that  we  heard  the  rebels  had  mounted  in 
the  neighborhood.  I  called  to  the  acting  master,  who 
was  to  accompany  me,  to  know  if  he  had  the  rat-tail 
files  to  spike  the  guns  with,  if  necessary.  He  turned 
to  answer  me,  when  I  observed  his  features  working 
convulsively,  and  down  he  went  in  an  epileptic  fit. 
I  skirmished  round  on  shore  for  an  hour  or  two,  but 
did  not  find  any  signs  of  guns.  Just  then  I  heard  a 
shout,  and  hastening  over  to  the  other  end  of  my 
skirmish-line,  found  the  captain  of  the  forecastle  in  an 
epileptic  fit.  Well,  it  took  six  men  to  hold  him  and 
bring  him  on  board,  and  as  I  had  only  six  left  I  con- 
cluded to  let  the  guns  go,  and  returned  to  the  ship. 

The  acting  master  was  the  caterer  of  the  ward- 
room mess,  and  not  long  after,  while  returning  in  the 
market  boat,  having  been  on  shore  to  buy  chickens, 
eggs,  etc.,  he  fell  over  in  another  fit,  which  lasted  him 
a  week  before  he  was  fully  sane  again. 

One  day  while  he  was  still  confined  to  his  room,  we 

picked  up 

A  BIG  OWL 

struggling  in  the  river,  and  the  idea  occurred  to  me  to 

play  a  joke  on  F when  he  came  on  deck  again. 

So  I  prepared  everybody,  and  when  F came  up 


O1T   A   MAX-OF-WAB-  101 

one  morning,  he  asked  where  we  were.  I  pointed  to 
the  city,  and  said: 

"  Baton  Rouge." 

He  looked  at  me  doubtfully,  as  we  had  never  been 
up  so  far  before,  and  said: 

"Sure?" 

"  Certainly,"  said  I,  "  that  is  Baton  Rouge,  but,"  I 
said,  turning  to  the  old  owl,  who  at  once  rose  upon 
tip-toe,  spread  his  wings  wide,  and  opened  his  mouth, 

"  F ,  that  is  a  pretty  way  to  squander  our  mess 

money,  to  go  ashore  and  give  fifty  cents  and  a  half 
plug  of  tobacco  for  that  old  owl,  and  bring  it  on 
board  for  a  turkev." 

F looked  at  me  incredulously  and  then  at  the 

owl,  who  at  once  executed  his  pleasant  little  grimace 
again,  and  walked  forward  without  saying  a  word. 
I  saw  him  asking,  evidently,  if  that  was  Baton  Rouge, 
and  then  pointing  to  the  owl,  and  as  both  answers 
corroborated  with  my  remarks,  he  was  evidently 
staggered.  He  took  the  first  opportunity  to  throw 
the  owl  overboard,  but  never  alluded  to  the  turkey, 
and  I  don't  think  he  ever  knew,  for  certain,  whether 
he  bought  that  owl  or  not. 

We  had 

A  VERY  SMART  CAT 

on  board  who,  having  always  been  petted,  was  afraid 
of  nothing.  He  came  up  cautiously  to  a  couple  of  rab- 


102  ON   A   MAN-OF-WAB. 

bits  one  day,  and  would  sit  up  and  stroke  their  ears 
with  his  paw,  being  evidently  much  amused  .to  see 
them  jump. 

During  owl  week  he  had  discovered  the  owl  sitting 
on  a  cleat  near  the  quarter  deck,  and  prowled  round 
to  see  what  it  was.  He  finally  got  quite  near  to  Mrs. 
Owl,  and  sitting  up,  was  about  to  stroke  her  ear,  I 
guess,  when  suddenly  the  owl  rose  upon  her  toes, 
standing  nearly  three  feet  high,  spread  out  her  wings, 
and  blinking  rapidly,  opened  her  mouth.  Tom  turned 
a  series  of  back  somersaults,  and  with  his  back  arched 
double  and  tail  of  same  thickness  as  his  body,  he 
took  up  a  position  on  the  hammock  rail,  and  swore  at 
the  owl  for  five  minutes. 

THEY  WANTED  PORK. 

One  day  we  made  a  raid  on  a  plantation  and  cap- 
tured a  lot  of  horses,  mules,  sheep,  pigs,  turkeys  and 
geese,  and  took  them  over  to  Donaldsonville  for  the 
benefit  of  the  troops  there,  keeping  some  mutton 
and  poultry  and  a  couple  of  pigs  for  ourselves.  As 
there  was  so  much  poultry  the  captain  directed  the 
paymaster  not  to  serve  out  any  allowance  of  salt  pork 
to  the  men,  thinking  that,  of  course,  they  would  be 
much  pleased  with  the  substitute.  At  12  o'clock, 
noon,  there  was  a  deputation  of  men  at  the  mast  "  to 
know  if  they  couldn't  have  their  ration  of  pork  that 


ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR.  103 

belonged  to  'em,  as  half  the  men  didn't  want  to  eat 
them  fresh  water  things  (geese)." 

Sailors  are  always  willing  to  accept  any  little  extras, 
but  not  at  the  expense  of  a  single  thing  that  belongs 
to  them. 

THAT  PIG  OF  OURS. 

We  had  kept  for  our  own  use  two  pigs,  and  they 
were  suffered  to  run  loose  about  the  decks. 

About  six  bells  (3  p.  M.),  there  was  a  commotion 
forward,  and  a  man  ran  aft,  to  the  officer  of  the  deck, 
to  report  that  one  of  the  pigs  was  overboard  and 
making  for  the  shore.  Away  went  two  boats  in  pur- 
suit, confident  that  they  would  pick  him  up  in  a 
moment,  and  bring  him  on  board,  but  they  reckoned 
without  their  pig,  a  host  in  himself.  Just  as  the  bow 
oarsman  would  reach  down  to  grab  him,  piggy  would 
dive  and  come  up  on  the  other  side  of  the  boat,  amid 
the  peals  of  laughter  from  the  ship.  The  boats 
would  back  water,  give  way  port,  back  starboard, 
stern  all,  then  pull  like  blazes,  but  in  vain,  and  it  was 
not  until  piggy  was  exhausted,  that  they  managed  to 
get  a  line  round  his  neck  and  haul  him  in. 

When  we  went  down  to  the  blockade  off  Galveston, 
piggy  accompanied  us,  and  ate  impartially  at  every 
mess  in  the  ship.  Old  Charley  Brown,  a  contraband, 
had  him  in  special  charge,  and  promptly  resented  any 
indignity  offered  to  the  pig.  I  remember  one  day 


104:  ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR. 

Charley  came  up  in  a  rage,  because  the  men  were 
laughing  to  see  the  pig  slide  backward  and  forward 
across  the  deck,  from  one  scupper  to  the  other,  as  the 
ship  rolled  heavily,  and  did  not  offer  to  help  his  pro- 
tege. Charley  promptly  choked  the  luff  of  the  pig 
with  a  big  damp  swab  so  he  could  remain  quiet,  not- 
withstanding the  motion  of  the  ship.  As  we  were 
keeping  an  armed  watch,  and  every  eye  on  the  alert, 
old  Charley  would  march  up  and  down  during  the 
mid-watch,  with  a  pike  over  his  shoulder,  with  which 
he  would  now  and  then  make  dashes  at  the  hammock 
rail,  to  repel  any  imaginary  boarders  who  might 
come  over,  the  pig,  trotting  gravely  at  his  heels,  only 
making  an  occasional  detour  round  the  engine  room 
hatch  by  way  of  a  flier.  Finally,  through  stress  of 
hunger,  we  were  compelled  to  kill  the  pig.  Charley 
refused  to  do  it,  intimating  that  misfortune  would 
certainly  follow  it,  and  on  the  evening  following,  in 
his  French  patois,  he  told  me  confidentially,  that  the 
pig  had  appeared  to  him  and  marched  up  and  down 
the  deck  with  him  as  usual. 

"  Do  you  believe  in  ghosts  ?  " 

he  asked,  and  I  was  forced  to  admit  that  I  did. 
Charley  was  consistent,  and  refused  to  eat  a  morsel 
of  the  fresh  pork  furnished  by  his  old  friend. 


ON    A    MAX-OF-WAR.  105 

IMPUDESCK. 

One  of  oar  vessels  on  the  South  Pacific  station, 
was  ordered  by  the  admiral,  to  go  to  one  of  the 
Pacific  Islands. 

Well,  the  captain  didn't  want  to  go  at  all,  so  he 
waited  until  he  was  notified  sharply  to  obey  the 
order. 

Not  having  gone  on  the  day  following,  the  fleet 
captain  came  on  board,  and  said  that  the  admiral's 
order  was,  "  that  if  he  was  not  under  weigh  by  12 
o'clock,  he  would  relieve  him  of  his  command,  and 
prefer  charges  against  him."  So  about  10  minutes  of 
12  he  got  under  weigh,  and  started,  but  before  he  got 
two  miles  he  made  signal  to  the  admiral,  asking  per- 
mission to  "  part  company." 

Squadron  rules,  "that  no  vessel  shall  part  com- 
pany with  the  flagship,  except  by  permission,"  is  a 
good  thing,  but  the  very  impudence  of  his  signal, 
after  being  almost  kicked  out,  made  it  very  funny. 

PLAYESG  BOTH  BOWEBS. 

A  great  many  years  ago  one  of  our  sloops  of  war 
was  in  the  straits  of  Magellan,  when  it  became  neces- 
sary to  anchor.  The  irascible  commander  was  giving 
orders  himself,  and  called  out  sharply, 

"  A  hand  by  the  starboard  anchor." 

The  executive  officer  gently  asked  if  it  would  not 


106  ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR. 

be  well  to  get  a  cast  of  the  lead,  to  see  how  deep  the 
water  was  first.  Annoyed  at  his  evident  mistake,  the 
obstinate  old  fellow  bellowed  out: 

"No,  sir;  let  go  the  starboard  anchor,  sir," 
and  away  she  went.  Each  bower  anchor  has  150 
fathoms,  900  feet  of  chain,  and  this  chain  skipped 
out  lively;  when  it  came  to  the  bitter  end,  which  is 
lashed  to  a  bolt  in  the  kelson,  there  was  a  wrench, 
and  the  last  section,  like  a  huge  snake,  writhed  out 
at  the  hawse-hole  in  a  shower  of  sparks. 

"  The  anchor  is  down,  sir,"  called  out  the  officer  of 
the  forecastle  cheerfully. 

"  A  hand  by  the  port  anchor,"  shouted  the  captain, 
and  the  port  anchor  with  its  900  feet  of  chain  went 
down  like  a  fiery  serpent,  in  search  of  the  starboard  one. 

There  being  no  more  anchors  handv,  the  com- 
mander yielded  charge  of  the  deck  to  a  less  expensive 
subordinate,  better  acquainted  with  the  lay  of  the 
land,  who  succeeded,  after  bending  the  sheet  chains, 
in  anchoring  the  ship  to  a  better  advantage. 

ON  THE  BANKS  OF  NEWFOUNDLAND. 

"  Oh,  captain,  what  are  we  stopping  for  ?  " 

«  Fog." 

"  But,  captain,  its  clear  overhead." 

"  Ain't  going  that  way." 

"  Oh,  captain,  is  it  always  foggy  here  ?  " 

"  How  in  the  devil  do  I  know,  /don't  live  here  ?" 


OX    A   1LLX-OF-WAB,  107 


LETTER  XL 

THE  SCIOTO  OFF  GALVESTOX WATCHIXG  FOB  A  SAIL — 

ORDEEED  TO  PASS  THE  BATTERIES THE  HATTERAS 

CHASES  THE  ALABAMA AXD  THE  ALABAMA  SIXKS 

HER — THE    PAYMASTER'S    OMELET — A    STICKLER 

FOR  BANK HE  FOUXD  THE  MAX  WHO  FURNISHED 

THE  CHEESE A  ROLLING  GUXBOAT. 

The  Scioto  was  for  some  six  months  on  the  block- 
ade 

OFF  GALVESTOX,  TEXAS. 

There  was  a  good  deal  of  rivalry  between  the  gun- 
boats as  to  which  should  report  first  that  a  sail  was 
in  sight.  So  in  order  to  stimulate  our  mast-head 
lookouts  to  watchfulness  I  had  given  directions  that 
if  our  lookout  reported  a  sail  Jirst,  he  would  be 
relieved  at  once,  but-  if  the  lookout  of  a  rival  gun- 
boat got  ahead  of  him  he  was  to  be  kept  up  there  all 
dav.  Thanks  to  this  competitive  system,  we  were 
generally  the  first  to  report  a  sail. 

ALWAYS  READY. 

The  steam  was  kept  low  with  the  fires  banked;  the 
chain  brought  to  the  capstan,  with  the  anchor  just 


108  ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR. 

under  foot,  ready  to  trip  at  a  moment's  notice,  and 
orders  given,  so  that  at  the  cry  of, 

"  Sail  ho  !  " 

from  the  mast-head,  the  men  sprang  to  the  bars  and 
commenced  to  heave  round,  the  engineer  spread 
his  fires,  the  quartermaster  bent  on  the  signal  num- 
ber 1258,  which  telegraphed  to  the  flagship, 

"  Strange  sail  to  the  eastward," 

and  as  soon  as  answered  up  went  interrogatory  896, 
meaning, 

"  Can  I  give  chase  ?  " 

The  captain  came  up  at  once,  and  in  one  minute 
from  the  discovery,  the  ship  was  under  weigh, 
standing  out  to  sea. 

One  Saturday  the  commodore  announced  that  on 
Monday,  if  pleasant,  we  would 

ATTEMPT  TO  PASS  THE  BATTERIES 

and  enter  Galveston;  so  we  were  all  feeling  corre- 
spondingly uncomfortable,  not,  of  course,  because  we 
were  afraid  at  all — in  fact  we  were  the  original  par- 
ties who  were  "  longing  for  the  fray,"  men  of  gore, 
whose  trade  was  war  and  rapine,  more  particularly, 
perhaps,  the  latter.  Still  we  wei'e  familiar  with  the 
reputation  of  the  Texas  riflemen  as  marksmen,  and 
we  knew  there  were  a  good  many  chances  in  favor 
of  some  losing  the  number  of  their  mess,  and  leaving 


OX    A    MAX-OF-WAR.  109 

their  families  unprovided  for;  some  of  us  were  even 
not  insured,  so  reckless  had  we  become,  inured  to  toil 
and  danger  as  we  were,  bronzed  by  the  tropic  sun  for, 
say,  three  or  four  months. 

Well,  we  looked  up  our  little  matters,  some  of  us 
had  our  hair  cut;  others  hunted  up  their  bibles, 
which  were  safely  stowed  away  in  their  lockers,  and 
all  wore  a  pretty  serious  air,  I  assure  you.  Sunday 
was  a  delightful  day,  and  the  prospect  that  Monday 
would  be  pleasant  was  very  good,  or  rather,  very 
bad,  indeed. 

About  4  P.  M.  we  observed  that 

THE  HATTF.KAS  WAS  CXDEK  WEIGH, 

with  signal, 

"  Strange  sail  to  the  eastward," 

flying.  I  accordingly  doomed  our  unfortunate  look- 
out to  stay  up  there  until  sunset  for  not  seeing  it 
first;  as  it  turned  out,  I  have  forgotten  whether  he 
was  ultimately  rewarded  for  it  or  not.  As  the  Hat- 
teras  steamed  off  in  pursuit,  having  permission  from 
the  flagship  so  to  do,  she  signaled, 

"  Strange  sail  suspicious,71 
and  later, 

"  Strange  sail  positively  an  enemy,** 
soon  after  disappearing  in  pursuit.     Let  me  say  here 
that  this  last  signal  was  not  understood  at  the  time. 


110  ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR. 


About  dusk  (say  7  P.  M.),  as  the  captain  and  myself 
were  pacing  the  quarter  deck,  we  noted  flashes  of  heat 
lightning,  as  we  thought,  to  the  eastward,  but  soon  a 
low  thunder  which  followed  led  us  to  believe  that  it 
was  firing  of  great  guns*  We  timed  the  flash  and 
report,  and  estimated  the  distance  to  be  twenty  miles, 
allowing  1,120  feet  per  second  for  the  velocity  of 
sound. 

The  captain  at  once  took  his  gig  and  went  on  board 
the  flagship,  leaving  me  to  get  the  ship  under  weigh. 
After  some  delay  the  flagship  Brooklyn,  the  Katahdin, 
and  the  Scioto  were  standing  out  to  sea,  in  pursuit. 
Well,  we  steamed  until  1  A.  M.,  and  finding  nothing 
the  Katahdin  and  Scioto  retui-ned  to  their  anchorage. 

THE  HATTERAS  SUNK  BY  THE  ALABAMA. 

About  7  A.  M.  the  next  morning  a  white  whale 
boat  was  seen  approaching  the  ship  from  the  shore. 
We  watched  it  with  considerable  curiosity,  as  we 
supposed  it  to  be  another  flag  of  truce  from  the  "  rebs." 
As  it  dashed  up  alongside  it  proved  to  be  the  Ilat- 
teras's  gig.  The  acting  master  in  charge  came  on 
board  and  touched  his  cap,  and  answered  my  question 
of, 

"Where  is  the  Hatteras,  sir?" 
with, 


OX    A   MAX-OF-WAR.  1 11 

"  The  Hatteras  was  sunk  at  7.30  last  evening,  sir, 
by  the  290." 

"  Walk  down  in  the  cabin,  sir,  and  report  to  the 
captain," 

I  said,  and  giving  directions  to  drop  the  boat  astern, 
and  let  the  crew  come  aboard  to  breakfast,  I  was 
obliged  to  await  the  result  of  his  interview  with  the 
captain,  anxious  as  I  was  to  learn  the  particulars. 
The  crew  of  the  boat  were  the  center  of  attraction 
forward,  and  our  men  soon  knew  as  much  as  they 
did. 

We  at  once  got  under  weigh,  and  put  to  sea  in  pur- 
suit of  the  Brooklyn.  As  soon  as  she  saw  us  she 
came  after  us,  under  full  steam,  hoping  that  we  were 
the  Alabama,  and  seemed  correspondingly  disgusted 
upon  discovering  our  true  character.  Upon  compar- 
ing notes  we  found  that  the  Brooklyn  had  picked  up 
two  of  the  Hatteras's  boats,  lashed  together,  with 
clothing  in  them  stained  with  blood,  and  that  she  dis- 
covered the  Hatteras,  sunk  in  nine  fathoms,  with 
her  mastheads  sticking  out  of  water,  where  she  now 
is,  I  suppose. 

A  SHORT  FIGHT,  BUT  A  HOT  OXE. 

We  afterwards  learned  that  Capt.  Blake  was  posi- 
tive in  his  mind  that  the  vessel  he  was  approaching 
was  the  Alabama;  he  had  his  cutlass  ground  sharp, 


112  ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR. 

and  determined  to  run  down  his  enemy,  far  his 
superior  in  force,  and  carry  him  by  boarding. 

As  he  approached  he  hailed, 

"  What  vessel  is  that  ?  " 

"  Her  Britannic  Majesty's  ship  Spitfire,"  was  the 
reply,  at  the  same  time  running  up  the  English  flag. 

"I'll  send  a  boat  aboard  of  you,"  said  the  Hat- 
teras's  captain. 

"Aye,  aye,  sir," 

was  the  reply,  and  as  the  gig  approached  her  the  Ala- 
bama lowered  her  ladder,  and  showed  a  light  over 
the  side,  it  being  just  dusk. 

At  this  exciting  moment  the  captain  of  the  Ala- 
bama called  out: 

"This  is  the  290," 

and  bang!  went  his  broadside  into  the  Hatteras, 
down  came  the  English  flag  and  up  went  the  Stars 
and  Bars. 

The  Hatteras  replied  nobly  and  struck  the  Alabama 
twenty-two  times  with  her  shot  and  shell. 

The  shot  of  the  Alabama,  however,  soon  pierced 
her  thin  iron  hull,  and  penetrating  her  boilers  ren- 
dered her  helpless,  enveloped  in  a  cloud  of  steam, 
the  Alabama  steaming  round  in  a  circle  pouring  in 
shot  and  shell. 

Finding  it  impossible  to  do  else,  Capt.  Blake  sur- 
rendered and  transferred  his  crew  to  the  Alabama 


ON   A   MAX-OF-WAR.  113 

just  in  time  to  escape  the  going  down  of  the  Hat- 
teras.  The  Alabama  at  once  steamed  off  to  the  east- 
ward, and  plunging  into  the  darkness  was  soon 
beyond  pursuit. 

Capt.  Semmes  remarked  that  he  didn't  want  to 
fight  any  more  men-of-war,  as  he  suffered  consider- 
ably with  his  fight  with  the  Hatteras,  but  he  did  try 
it  again  off  the  coast  of  France,  and  was  sunk  by 
the  United  States  steamer  Kearsarge  in  a  fight  of 
two  hours,  escaping  himself  in  the  English  yacht 
Deerhound,  which  by  some  peculiar  notion  of  neutral- 
ity picked  him  up  and  ran  off  with  him. 

"  It  is  an  ill  wind  that  blows  nobody  good," 
is  a  true  proverb.     By  the  loss  of   the  Hatteras  we 
were  too  weak  to  attack  the  Galveston  forts,  and  the 
attack  was  postponed.     Hence  these  tales. 

AX  EGG  STORY. 

One  day  our  commander  happened  to  be  on  board 
the  flagship,  when  an  officer  came  on  board  from 
shore  with  a  flag  of  truce.  While  waiting  to  be 
shown  into  the  cabin  the  officer  recognized  in  him  an 
old  class  and  shipmate.  They  shook  hands  and  gos- 
siped a  while,  and,  upon  leaving  the  ship,  the  "  reb  " 
offered  to  send  our  skipper  a  couple  of  dozen  of  eggs. 
When  the  eggs  arrived  the  commander  sent  a  half 
dozen  down  into  the  wardroom  to  the  paymaster. 


114:  ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR. 

Well,  Pay  was  delighted.  Eggs  was  eggs  just  then, 
as  we  had  lived  on  our  rations  for  the  last  three 
months;  so  he  bragged  about  his  eggs  until  the  rest 
of  the  mess  were  dissolved  in  envy.  The  following 
morning,  at  breakfast,  an  omelet  was  placed  in  front 
of  the  paymaster  which  certainly  contained,  at  least, 
five  eggs.  The  paymaster  was  furious. 

"Steward!  where's  the  steward ?"  he  shouted. 

While  the  boy  went  forward  after  the  steward, 
Pay  regarded  the  omelet  gloomily,  and  coldly  invited 
each  member  of  the  mess  to  take  some.  All  declined 
save  two,  who  ate  with  great  satisfaction  the  portion 
allotted  them.  Notwithstanding  his  evident  annoy- 
ance, Pay  commenced  to  eat  some  of  the  omelet, 
when  the  steward  appeared  with  a  covered  dish  in 
his  hands. 

"Steward!"  shouted  the  paymaster,  "what  in  the 

d 1  do  you  mean  by  cooking  all  of  those  eggs  at 

once  ?  Besides,  I  told  you  I  wanted  'em  boiled." 

"  Here's  your  eggs,  sir,"  said  the  unruffled  steward, 
uncovering  the  dish  and  setting  five  eggs  down  on 
the  table,  "  one  of  'em  was  bad." 

A  smile  broke  over  the  face  of  the  paymaster,  and 
after  finishing  the  omelet  and  offering  the  boiled  eggs 
to  each,  he  reached  out  and  took  one  himself.  He 
looked  at  it  curiously,  and  with  a  muttered  swear  ho 
dashed  it  down,  and  rising  from  the  table,  rushed  on 
deck. 


O3T   A   MAX-OF-WAR.  115 

I  did  not  understand,  bat  managed  to  gather  from 
the  explanation  furnished  by  one  of  the  omelet  eat- 
ers, interrupted  by  frequent  laughter,  that  he  and  the 
other  confederate  had  sat  up  half  the  night  blowing 
out  the  contents  of  the  eggs  with  straws  through 
small  orifices;  the  result  of  the  blowing  was  made  into 
omelet,  and  the  shells  being  boiled  filled  with  water, 
and  for  a  moment  deceived  a  person  into  taking  one. 

I  was  real  glad  that  I  did  not  take  omelet  with 
mine.  The  missing  sixth  egg  was  accounted  for  by 
the  blower's  stating  that  in  his  haste  and  fear  of 
detection,  he  had  dropped  it  on  the  wardroom  floor. 
It  might  have  appeared  at  breakfast,  however,  as  a 
dropped  egg,  but  didn't. 

Every  day  or  two  after  the  paymaster  would  burst 
into  the  wardroom  in  a  rage  because  some  allusion  to 
eggs  had  been  dropped. 

AS  OFFICER  OVERBOARD. 

They  tell  the  story  of  the  eccentric  old  captain, 
now  dead,  formerly  in  command  of  the  North  Caro- 
lina. He  was  a  martinet  and  very  profane.  On  one 
occasion  he  fell  overboard  in  crossing  the  gangway 
plank  from  the  cobb  dock  to  the  ship.  The  sentry 
in  the  gangway  promptly  called  out: 

"Man  overboard!" 

"  An  officer,  you  blasted  fool ! » 


116  ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR. 

spluttered  the  captain,  as  he  rose  to  the  surface  for 
the  second  time, 
"An  officer,  sir." 

NO  CHANGE  FOR  THE  WINNER. 

The  same  captain  bantered  the  executive  officer  of 
the  ship  into  a  wager  to  race  with  him,  the  former 
having,  as  he  supposed,  a  crack  boat  and  crew. 

The  race  came  off,  but  the  irascible  commander, 
seeing  that  he  was  being  badly  beaten,  made  the  sur- 
rounding air  blue  with  his  sulphurous  oaths,  while 
executing  a  war  dance  in  the  stern  of  his  boat, 
ordered  the  other  to, 

"  Lay  on  his  oars," 

and,  upon  their  return  to  the  ship,  put  the  executive 
officer  under  arrest  for  disrespect  to  his  superior  and 
commanding  officer  in  daring  to  pass  the  former 
without  permission. 

There  is  nothing  to  show  that  the  captain  ever 
paid  the  bet,  but  the  ship's  log  records  the  fact  that 
not  long  after  the  executive  officer  was  transferred  to 
a  sea-going  ship,  where  racing  boats  to  win,  could  be 
more  profitably  engaged  in  with  safety  to  the  leading 
boat. 

JUST  THE  MAN  HE  WANTED. 

An  old  man-of-warsman  took  his  seat  in  a  passen- 
ger car  one  day,  attracting  some  considerable  atten-- 


OX    A    MAX-OF-AVAR.  117 

tion  by  his  dress  and  manner.  One  of  those  meddle- 
some sort  of  people,  described  in  that  laughable 
book  "On  Wheels,"  moved  over,  and  took  a  seat 
alongside  the  sailor. 

"In  the  navy,  eh?" 

The  sailor  nodded  affirmatively. 

"  "Well,"  said  the  interlocutor  hesitatingly,  "  I  am 
not  exactly  in  the  navy  myself.  I  am  a  contractor — 
that  is,  I  furnish  cheese  to  the  navy." 

"  Oh!  you  are,  are  ye  ?"  said  the  sailor  menacingly, 
"  you  are  just  the  chap  I've  been  looking  for." 

And  accordingly  he  knocked  the  aspirant  for  naval 
honors  over  the  car  seat,  and  added,  as  he  looked 
inquiringly  up,  and  down  the  car, 

"  Now  show  me  the  son-of-a-gun  that  furnishes 
butter." 

A  BOLIJQfG  GUXBOAT. 

"  Twice  ten  tempestuous  nights  I  rolled,  resigned 
To  roaring  billows  and  the  warring  wind." 

The  Scioto  rolled  terribly,  when  in  the  trough  of 
the  sea,  to  the  great  detriment  of  our  crockery;  though 
we  always  had  sand  bags  lashed  round  the  rim  of  the 
table  to  save  the  pieces.  I  have  seen  an  officer  vibrate 
between  the  table  and  the  bulk-head  holding  a  plate 
of  soup  in  his  hands,  his  chair  slipping  back  and  forth 
over  the  smooth  oil  cloth  of  the  ward  room  floor. 

One  of  our  officers,  returning  from  a  visit,  said, 
admiringly, 


118  ON   A   MAN-OF-WAR. 

"  That  New  London  is  a  bully  little  steamer." 

"Why?" 

"Because  she  rolls  so  confounded  fast  that  the 
dishes  don't  have  time  to  slip  off  the  table." 

I  have  heard  an  old  sailor  yarn,  where  a  schooner, 
he  was  in,  rolled  clear  over  one  night,  and  so  easy, 
too,  that  they'd  never  have  known  it,  but  that  every 
man  had  a  round  turn  in  his  hammock  cl&cs. 


A    MAX-OJf-WAB.  119 


LETTER  XII. 

"  Now  on  their  coasts  our  conquering  navy  rides, 
Waylays  their  merchants,  and  their  land  besets." 

THE   BLOCKADE    OFF    GALVESTON A   LITTLE    BATTERY 

PKACTICE "HE    WHO    FIGHTS    AST>,"    ETC. IN    A 

VERY   SERIOUS  PREDICAMENT WHY   THE   CAPTAIN 

"  SET   'EM    UP    FOR    THE    BOYS " HOW    THE    CAP- 
TAIN  WAS    SHOT    IN    THE    NECK THE    REBEL    RAM 

ARKANSAS     RUNS     THE     GAUNTLET THE     PHILOSO- 
PHY   OF  DESERTION THE  RETORT  DISCOURTEOUS 

IN  THE  IRISH  CHANNEL. 

While  ou  the  blockade,  off  Galveston,  the  gunboats 
used  to  get  under  weigh  at  daylight,  and  run  down 
to  the  flag-ship  for  company,  returning  to  their 
stations  just  after  dark.  This  enabled  the  officers  to 
visit  one  another  during  the  day,  and  tended  to  mis- 
lead the  rebels  as  to  where  we  lay  during  the  night. 
Had  we  selected  any  particular  anchorage,  it  would 
have  been  easy  for  blockade  runners  to  have  run  in 
by  a  route  far  enough  away  from  the  gunboats  to 
have  escaped  observation  in  the  darkness;  and  again, 
a  permanent  anchorage  might  have  enabled  a  ram  to 
come  out  some  pleasant,  obscure  evening,  and  sink  a 
gunboat  or  two. 


120  ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR. 

DRAWING   THE   ENEMY'S   FIRE. 

One  afternoon  we  steamed  slowly  in  toward  Gal- 
veston,  and  threw  some  shell  into  the  city,  aimed  at 
the  captured  steamer  Harriet  Lane,  which  lay  at  a 
wharf  inside.  "We  succeeded  in  having  her  towed 
away  up  the  bay,  and  also  succeeded  in  drawing  the 
fire  of  the  shore  battery  near  by,  as  well  as  fire  from 
Fort  Point,  some  two  and  a  half  miles  distant. 

I  remember  looking  through  the  glass,  trying  to 
see  the  battery,  as  located  by  the  captain,  when  a 
shot  came  whistling  just  over  us;  and,  do  you  know, 
that  I  could  not  get  a  focus  on  that  glass  to  save  me, 
and  it  was  a  good  glass,  too.  The  long  shots  from 
the  batteries  on  the  Point  were 

TRYING    TO    THE    NERVES, 

I  assure  you,  on  account  of  the  time  elapsing  between 
the  puff  of  smoke  and  the  arrival  of  the  shot;  the 
time  was  probably  only  ten  seconds,  but  if  a  fellow 
was  dancing  around  you  with  a  big  club,  and  you 
were  waiting  for  him  to  hit  you  most  anywhere,  you 
wasn't  sui'e  where,  time  would  be  time.  A  puff  of 
white  smoke  would  shoot  out  from  the  fort,  and'  we 
knew  that  something  was  coming.  After  a  while  you 
would  hear  a  murmuring  sound,  like  the  wind  in  a 
distant  grove,  growing  deeper  and  fuller,  until,  like 
the  blast  of  a  hurricane,  it  rushed  over  and  struck 


oar  A  JCAX-OF-WAK.  121 

the  water  near  by,  throwing  a  column  fifty  feet  into 
the  air,  simultaneously  relieving  the  suspended  re- 
spiration of  150  sets  of  lungs,  whose  owners  were 
earning  their  living  literally  by  the  sweat  of  their 
brows.  Well,  we  just  put  our  little  helm  a-starboard, 
and  dusted  out  of  that,  a  parting  shot  throwing  the 
spray  quite  on  board,  and  having  the  extraordinary 
effect  of  increasing  the  revolutions  of  the  screw  to  a 


After  dark  we  got  under  weigh,  to  go  to  our 
anchorage  for  the  night,  and  steamed  off  to  the 
northward  and  eastward. 

As  we  approached  Fort  Point,  the  captain  thought 
he  would  explore  the  channel  a  little,  and  stood  close 
in  toward  the  fort.  Suddenly,  with  an  easy  grating 
slide,  the  little  steamer  was 

H4KT>    AXB    FAST    AGROCTNT). 

As  the  fellow  who  asked  for  gape  seed,  in  Xew 
York,  would  say,  we  backed  her,  and  we  backed  her. 
and  we  backed  her;  and  we  rolled  her,  and  rolled 
her,  and  rolled  her;  for  two  hours  we  worked  to  try 
and  get  her  off,  without  success.  We  sent  a  boat  to 
the  flagship  for  assistance;  got  a  heavy  kedge  out 
with  a  hawser  to  the  capstan,  and  backed  her  and 
rolled  her  again,  but  to  no  purpose. 

The  captain  then  gave  me  orders  co  throw  over  the 


122  ON    A   MAN-OF-WAR. 

coal,  and  to  lighten  the  ship  as  best  I  could.  I  asked 
for  one  more  trial  before  throwing  away  coal  that 
was  worth,  down  there,  $20  a  ton  in  gold,  and  he 
consented  to  hold  on  a  little  longer.  You  can 
imagine  that  we  were  anxious  to  get  out  of  there 
before  daylight  revealed  our  position  to  the  battei'ies 
not  a  mile  distant,  and  as  the  daylight  would  bring 
us  certain  demolition,  we  cast  an  anchor  out  of  the 
stern  of  the  ship,  and  dreaded  the  day. 

OFF   AT   LAST. 

I  stationed  every  man  in  the  ship  along  the  star- 
board side,  and  made  them  a  little  speech,  and  at  the 
order 

"  Rush," 

they  rushed  violently  over  to  the  port  side;  again  the 
"  rush "  order,  and  back  went  every  son  of  'em, 
laughing,  as  if  it  were  a  good  joke.  Then  we 
manned  the  capstan  again  and  walked  away  with 
the  hawser.  The  man  in  the  chains  quietly  watched 
his  lead,  and  reported  no  movement;  the  engines 
were  backing  all  they  knew  how;  the  quartermaster 
reported  quietly, 

"The  kedge  is  coining  home,  sir;" 
round  went  the  capstan. 

"Heave  and  walk  him  up,  bullies,"  I  said,  "and 
we'll  back  the  kedge  and  try  again." 


OK    A    MAX-OF-WAR.  123 

Just  them  the  kedge  tripped  under  the  stern,  the 
ship  swung  back  to  port  and  slowly  moved;  the 
imperturbable  leadsman  in  the  chains  remarking 
quietly, 

"  She's  going  astern,  sir;" 

and,  sure  enough,  she  was.  As  soon  as  I  had  her 
safely  clear,  I  sent  down  word  to  the  captain,  and 
after  we  were  safely  anchored  he  embraced  me 
warmly,  invited  us  all  down  in  the  cabin  and  "  set 
'em  up  for  the  boys." 

THE  CAPTAIN'S  WOUND. 

The  same  gunboat  was  before  this  time  at  Vicks- 
burg  and  was  ordered,  with  others  of  the  squadron, 
to  pass  the  batteries  and  come  down  the  river. 

The  vessels  were  exposed  to  a  very  severe  fire  and 
suffered  considerably,  being  struck  several  times. 

One  shot  struck  the  carriage  of  the  rifle  gun  on 
the  forecastle,  knocked  over  several  of  the  crew,  kill- 
ing one  man  instantly,  and  altogether  it  was  pretty 
warm  work.  About  this  time  the  captain  was  coming 
aft,  and  was  passing  the  engine  room  hatch,  when  a 
shell  struck  in  the  water  ways  and  exploded  with  a 
terrific  noise  in  a  chicken  coop,  distributing  some 
twenty  chickens  and  ducks  impartially  over  the  ship; 
a  good  chunk  of  chicken,  or  duck,  I  won't  be  sure 
which,  struck  the  captain  in  the  back  of  the  neck; 


124  ON   A   MAN-OF-WAR. 

as  the  warm  blood  trickled  down  his  back,  he,  suppos- 
ing that  he  was  mortally  wounded,  or  worse,  walked 
slowly  aft,  holding  his  hands  a  little  out  from  his 
side,  a.s  a  person  would  who  was  afraid  his  spine 
would  drop  out,  and  while  reflecting  on  some  appro- 
priate last  words,  such  as  "Don't  give  up  the  fight," 
or  "Bury  me  in  the  salt,  salt  sea"  (then  a  thou- 
sand miles  distant),  was  surprised  and  pleased  when 
the  quartermaster,  who  was  wiping  off  his  neck, 
assured  him  that  he  was  not  wounded.  The  captain 
takes  much  more  pleasure  in  telling  his  story  to-day, 
than  he  would  if  it  had  turned  out  differently. 
A  few  days  before  this 

THE  REBEL  RAM  ARKANSAS 

suddenly  came  out  of  the  Yazoo  River  and  passed 
down  in  broad  daylight,  right  through  the  squadron 
lying  at  anchor.  It  was  a  clean  surprise.  She  had 
been  built  up  a  narrow  stream  and  we  had  no  suspi- 
cion that  there  was  such  a  vessel. 

As  she  passed  down,  every  vessel  that  could  bring 
a  gun  to  bear,  fired  at  her,  but  without  effect,  as 
she  had  closed  her  ports  and  her  heavily  iron- 
cladded  hull  was  impervious  to  their  shot. 

It  was  evident  that  she  would  pass  quite  near  the 
Scioto,  and  active  preparations  were  made  to  give 
her  a  warm  reception.  The  shell  was  quickly  drawn 


OX   A  MAX-OF-WAE.  125 

from  the  eleven-inch  gun  and  a  solid  shot  substituted. 
As  the  dangerous  craft  appeared  the  gun  was  brought 
to  hear,  and  the  breech  raised  so  as  to  hit  her  at  the 
water  fine.  Now  she  was  right  abreast. 

"Lower  a  little  more," 

was  the  order,  and  the  instant  that  was  to  immortal- 
ize the  Scioto  and  shed  glory  upon  the  officers,  "the 
tide  that  was  in  the  affairs  of  gunboats  to  lead  them 
on  to  fortune,"  seemed  embodied  in  that  instant. 

"Fire," 

was  upon  the  lips  of  the  captain,  when  a  little  roll  to 
starboard  started  the  shot  in  the  gun,  and  it  rolled 
miserably  out  at  the  muzzle,  and  dropped  ingloriously 
into  the  water. 

The  loader,  in  his  haste,  had  forgotten  to  put  a 
grommet  wad  over  the  shot.  The  commanding  offi- 
cer aat  down  on  a  spit-box  and  buried  his  face  in  his 
hands;  every  one  looked  every  way  for  Sunday,  not 
to  see  the  grief  stamped  upon  the  countenances  of  all 
hands,  and  all  hands  would  have  been  willing  to  have 
stamped  upon  the  unhappy  loader,  had  he  not  pru- 
dently withdrawn  himself.  I  have  never  learned 
what  became  of  the  loader.  I  suppose  he  wanders 
to  and  fro  upon  the  face  of  the  earth  a  victim  to 
**  what  might  have  been.1* 


l'2t>  OX    A    MAN-UF-WAK. 

THE  FASCIXATIOK  OF  DESERTION. 

"  Captain,"  said  a  lady  to  an  old  sailor  who  had 
commanded  many  ships,  "can  you  tell  me  why  the 
men  desert'  so  much  ?  Is  it  because  they  are  ill- 
treated  ?  " 

"  Well,  no,  not  exactly,"  replied  the  man  of  experi- 
ence. "  Sometimes  they  are  ill-treated,  but  again, 
they  will  desert  where  they  are  well  treated.  In  fact, 
madam,"  said  he,  warming  to  his  subject,  "  judging 
from  the  little  experience  I've  had  with  sailor  men 
(he  had  been  going  to  sea,  man  and  boy,  for  forty 
years),  I  really  believe  that  if  you  freighted  a  ship 
for  heaven,  and  was  obliged  to  touch  in  at  hell  for 
wood  and  water,  half  the  boat's  crew  would  desert." 

HOW  I  LOST  MY  ARM. 

There  is  a  story  which  is  such  a  good  joke  on  myself, 
that  I  hasten  to  tell  it  before  some  one  else  does. 
I  was  returning  invalided  from  New  Orleans,  having 
reached  Cairo  in  the  Black  Hawk,  Admiral  Porter's 
flagship,  and  had  taken  the  train  for  Cincinnati.  On 
the  train  was  a  private  soldier,  evidently  just  dis- 
charged, noisy  and  familiar  with  his  superiors  in  rank, 
being  as  good  as  any  colonel  or  major,  etc.  I  saw 
that  he  had  been  drinking,  and  I  had  taken  a  di.slike 
to  him  from  his  action  in  the  train. 

On   our  arrival  at  Odin   we  found  that  we   had 


OX   A    MAX-OF-WAR.  127 

missed  connection  and  would  have  to  stay  all  night; 
the  beds  were  all  taken  and  I  stood  leaning  against 
the  wall  of  the  office,  cogitating  as  to  what  I  should 
do,  being  almost  helpless,  when  up  came  my  soldier 
and  asked  roughlv  and  impertinently, 

"  Where  did  you  lose  your  arm  ?" 

I  looked  him  full  in  the  face  and  in  a  tone  replete 
with  dignity  (that  was  my  idea)  intended  to  crush 
his  impertinence,  replied,  "  I  was  hit  with  a  club  in 
the  Mexican  war,  sir.** 

"Oh,  you  were,  eh,"  he  said  sneeringly,  "it's  a 
pity  it  didn't  knock  your  d — d  head  off." 

That  man,  I  have  reason  to  believe,  still  lives. 

IX   THE   IRISH    CHANNEL 

"Are  you  sure  of  the  channel,  pilot?"  asked  an 
anxious  captain  as  the  ship  seemed  to  be  getting 
very  near  shore. 

"Shure,  is  it?  bedad,  captain,  darlin',  I  know  every 
rock  in  ould  Ireland,"  and,  as  just  then  the  ship 
struck  heavily, 

"I'm  a  Dutchman  ef  there  ain't  wan  of  thim." 


128  ON   A   MAN-OF-WAR. 


LETTER  XIH. 

"He  like  a  foolish  pilot,  hath  shipwreck'd 
My  vessel  gloriously  rigged." 

A  FRUITLESS  CHASE  OFF  GALVESTON — MAN  OVERBOARD 

A  COLLISION  ON  THE   MISSISSIPPI   RIVER — HEAVE 

ROUND. 

THE  ROCKET. 

One  beautiful  evening  while  lying  at  anchor  on  the 
blockade,  off  Galveston,  a  rocket  was  suddenly  seen 
to  seaward. 

"  Stand  by  to  slip," 
called  the  officer  of  the  deck; 

"  Boy,  tell  the  engineer  to  spread  fires," 

"  Slip,  go  ahead,  one  bell," 

and  in  five  seconds  we  were  standing  out  to  sea,  all 
hands  excited,  and  hoping  that  it  would  prove  to  be 
a  blockade  runner  worth  a  million  dollars.  As  we 
passed  the  Itasca,  her  commander  called  out: 

"  What  is  it,  L ?  " 

"  A  rocket  to  seaward,"  replied  the  skipper,  "  come 
along." 

"  All  right," 

was  the  reply,  and  soon  the  Itasca  was  steaming  up 
alongside,  and  was  shortly  lost  to  view  on  our  star- 
board bow. 

The  night  was  clear,  with  only  a  light  breeze  blow- 


OUST   A   MAX-OF-WAR.  129 

ing,  the  sea  was  smooth,  the  moon  shone  brightly, 
and  as  I  stood  on  the  ship's  rail,  leaning  on  the  board- 
ing netting,  I  thought,  well,  there  is  a  bright  side  to 
even  blockading;  what  a  lovely  night,  and  how  easily 
the  little  Scioto  runs  her  ten  knots  an  hour;  no  sea  on, 
no  motion;  if  we  could  only  hare  it  this  way  always. 
Suddenly  the  cry, 

"MAS  OTEKBOAKD," 

rudely  dispelled  my  contemplation  of  the  beauties  of 
the  flea,  and  the  bright  side  of  blockading. 

"Stop  her," 

"Three  bells,  a  turn  back; " 

"  Away  there,  life-boat's  crew,  clear  away  the  gig,** 
I  sang  out  as  I  jumped,  and  let  go  the  life-buoy  my- 
self.  The  gig  was  lowered,  the  men  sliding  down 
the  falls  and  tumbling  into  the  boat. 

"Pull  right  astern  and  keep  the  lights  in  range," 
I  said,  as,  by  the  captain's  orders,  the  quartermaster 
hoisted  a  light  forward,  and  the  gig  plunged  into  the 
darkness,  and  was  soon  far  astern.  By  keeping  the 
ship  headed  as  she  was  when  the  man  fell  overboard, 
and  hoisting  range  lights  forward  and  aft,  the  gig 
would,  of  course,  be  able  to  pull  back  exactly  over 
the  track  made  by  the  ship,  and  must  pass  dose  to 
the  man,  if  afloat. 


130  ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR. 

"  Who  was  it  ?  " 
was  the  question  next  asked. 

"  Old  Rogers,  sir,  the  gunner's  mate,"  answered  the 
captain  of  the  forecastle ;  "  he  leaned  against  one  of 
the  pivot  ports,  sir,  and  it  dropped  down,  sir,  and  he 
went  overboard." 

"  Yes,  sir,"  said  the  man  in  the  chains,  "  and  I  hove 
the  lead-line  right  between  his  hands,  and  he  couldn't 
catch  it,  sir." 

Pretty  soon  the  gig  returned  with  the  life-buoy  and 
the  mournful  report: 

"  We  couldn't  see  nothing  of  him,  sir." 

"  Hook  your  boat  on.  Lay  aft  to  the  gig's  falls," 
was  the  order,  and  the  men  silently  hoisted  the  boat, 
and  off  went  the  Scioto  again  in  pursuit  of  the 
rocket. 

True,  she  was  short  a  hand,  but  then  you  know  if 
the  rocket  proved  to  be  an  enemy,  and  showed  fight, 
why  we  would  probably  be  short  more  than  one. 

INSPIRATION  FOR  AN  ARTIST. 

I  often  think  of  that  scene,  and  wish  that  a  painter 
could  have  stood  with  me  on  the  rail  of  that  steamer 
— the  painting  of  it  would  eclipse  any  marine  view 
ever  yet  exhibited.  The  gig  had  just  pulled  off 
astern,  the  quartermasters  standing  on  the  stern  rail 
of  the  ship  burning  Coston's  signals,  illuminating  the 
sea  for  a  mile  round,  and  as  the  bright  flame  now 


OS  A  liAX-OF-WAK.  131 

green,  now  red,  lighted  np  the  eager  faces  of  the 
crew,  all  crowding  and  gazing  aft,  alternately  with  a 
ghastly  pallor  and  rosy  light,  the  ship  rising  and  fall- 
ing easily  on  the  long  swell  of  the  Golf  of  Mexico, 
with  every  thread  of  rigging  standing  out  bright  on 
the  dark  background  of  the  sky,  it  was  a  most  beau- 
tiful picture, 

HU>-TIXG  EST  COUPLES. 

The  Scioto  and  Itasca  were  ninety-day  gun-boats, 
or,  as  they  were  called,  the  23's:  they  carried  an 
eleven-inch  pivot  gun  amidships,  a  twenty-pounder 
rifle  Parrot  on  the  topgallant  forecastle,  and  four 
howitzers  aft.  By  an  arrangement  with  the  Itasca,  we 
were  to  hunt  in  couples,  the  Scioto  fighting  her  star- 
board battery,  and  the  Itasca  her  port-  battery.  By 
this  means  we  could  pivot  our  heavy  eleven-inch  to 
starboard  and  carry  it  athwartships  ready  for  use, 
instead  of  securing  it  fore  and  aft,  as  was  the  usual 
custom. 

It  was  the  dut    of 


to  see  that  the  pivot  ports  were  hauled  np,  and 
stopped  only  with  a  yarn,  so  that  in  case  we  had  to 
use  the  gun  suddenly,  the  ports  could  be  instantly 
dropped  and  the  gun  fired  at  once.  On  this  fatal 
evening,  he  had  secured  the  ports  as  usual,  reporting 


132  ON   A   MAN-OF-WAR. 

the  same  to  the  officer  of  the  deck  at  eight  P.  M.,  and 
forgetting  what  he  had  done,  leaned  against  one 
of  them,  which  giving  way,  plunged  him  into  the 
water;  being  an  old  man  and  incumbered  in  a  heavy 
pea-coat,  he  was  unable  to  keep  up. 

He  had  been  in  the  navy  all  his  life,  and  used  to  tell 
how  he  was  on  board  the  brig  Somers  when  young 
Spencer  was  hanged  for  mutiny. 

Well,  we  ran  on  until  about  midnight,  and  still  saw 
nothing  to  explain  the  rocket.  Up  came  the  Itasca, 
and  sneeringly  asked: 

"WHERE'S  YOUR  BLOCKADE  RUNNER?" 

so  we  concluded  to  just  keep  steerage  way  on  and  let 
the  watch  turn  in,  all  hands  having  been  on  deck  all 
the  evening,  and  wait  for  daylight. 

I  lay  down  in  my  clothes,  with  my  sword  and 
revolver  in  my  belt,  and  went  to  sleep.  It  seemed  as 
if  I  had  only  about  closed  my  eyes,  when  whir-r-r 
went  the  rattle,  and  I  climbed  on  deck  in  a  hurry,  I 
tell  you. 

The  captain  met  me  at  the  head  of  the  ladder,  and 
with  a  stage  whisper,  led  me  forward  by  the  pivot 
gun;  I  stooped  down  at  his  bidding  and  looked. 

"What  do  you  think  of  it?"  he  whispered 
anxiously. 

"Think?"  said  I,  "it's  the  Great  Eastern." 


ON   A   MAN-OF-WAR.  133 

Just  then  along  came  our  old  friend,  the  Itasca; 
we  pointed  out  the  steamer,  and  then  both  started 
for  her,  the  Itasca  on  her  starboard  hand  and  we  on  the 
port.  Well,  the  Itasca  was  the  fastest,  and  darted 
ahead.  We  approached  the  steamer  cautiously,  when, 
suddenly  there  was  a  rushing  sound  from  forward, 
and  the  officer  of  the  forecastle  sang  out: 

"Hard  a-port;  quick's  your  play." 

We  jammed  down  our  helm,  when  whiz  went  the 
Itasca  past  us,  running  about  ten  knots.  She  had 
made  the  circuit  of  the  steamer,  and  coming  back 
we  narrowly  escaped  a  collision  that  would  have 
sunk  one  or  both  of  us. 

A  DISAPPOINTMENT. 

Well,  our  rocket  was  only  a  friend,  another  man- 
of-war,  come  to  join  the  squadron,  and  he  had  con- 
cluded to  anchor  for  the  night  when  we  discovered 
him.  We  all  stood  in  for  our  anchorage,  and  passed 
close  under  the  stern  of  the  flagship  about  7.30  in  the 
morning.  The  commodore  was  on  deck,  and  he 
hailed  us  with: 

"  Good  morning,  captain.     What  vessel  is  that  ?  " 

"  The  United  States  steamer  B ,"  was  the  reply. 

"  How  did  you  know  she  was  out  there,  sir  ?  " 
"Saw  her  signals  about  8.30  last  evening;   been 
out  after  her  all  night,  sir," 
answered  our  captain. 


134:  ON   A   MAN-OF-WAR. 

As  we  steamed  slowly  over  to  our  anchorage,  I 
saw  the  commodore  pulling  some  hair  out  of  his  chin 
whiskers  and  gesticulating  to  an  unhappy  quarter- 
master, and  I  thanked  my  stars  that  I  didn't  have 
the  first  watch  last  night  aboard  the  flagship. 

ON   A   SINKING   GUN-BOAT. 

One  bright  June  day  the  Scioto  entered  the  South- 
west Pass,  Mississippi  River,  and  taking  a  pilot, 
steamed  up  the  river,  bound  for  New  Orleans  for 
repairs,  and  a  hospital  for  me. 

I  was  lying  in  a  cot  just  under  the  ward-room 
hatch  outside  my  state-room.  All  hands  were  pleased 
to  hear  the  news  of  the  fall  of  Vicksburg,  and  looked 
forward  to  a  pleasant  visit  to  New  Orleans  after  sev- 
eral months'  blockading. 

As  we  steamed  steadily  along,  I  became  aware  that 
we  were  approaching  or  meeting  a  steamer  coming 
down  the  river.  I  heard  the  contradictory  orders  of 
the  pilot, 

"Starboard," 

"Port," 

"  Steady, 

some  confusion,  and  then  an  easy  grating  sound  and 
motion  exactly  like  the  gentle  glide  of  a  boat  upon  a 
sloping  beach.  The  descending  steamer  struck  us 
just  abaft  the  forechains,  cutting  into  us  clear  to  the 


ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR.  135 

kelson.     Soon  I  heard  the  master-at-arms  come  aft, 
and  report, 

"  Five  feet  of  water  on  the  berthdeck,  sir;" 
some  one  else  cried  out, 

"  We  are  sinking." 

The  engines  were  started  ahead  again,  and  the  ship 
was  run  ashore;  the  engineer  came  up  and  reported: 

"  The  water  is  over  the  fire-room  floor,  sir," 
again, 

"  The  fires  are  out,  sir." 

The  engine  pegged  away  a  few  minutes  longer  and 
then  slowly  stopped,  and  the  impassible  chief  engi- 
neer came  up  and  reported: 

"  The  engines  have  stopped,  sir." 

(We  had  a  fussy  sort  of  officer  at  the  Naval  Acad- 
emy, when  I  was  a  midshipman,  and  the  cadets  said 
he  liked  the  evening  gun  because  it  always  reported 
when  it  went  off.) 

The  doctor  then  came  down,  and  had  me  carried  on 
deck  in  my  cot,  and  put  into  one  of  the  quarter  boats. 
(They  were  about  to  lower  the  boat  with  the  crew  in 
her,  but  I  knew  that  the  eye  bolts  in  the  bow  and 
stern  would  not  hold,  and  I  made  the  men  get  out, 
as  I  feared  a  plunge  in  the  Mississippi  would  not  help 
me  any  in  my  somewhat  weak  condition.) 

I  was  put  safely  on  board  the  steamer  which  ran 
into  us,  which  tumed  out  to  be  the  Antona,  a  cap- 


136  ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR. 

tured  blockade  runner,  now  a  store-ship.  About 
dark  a  tug  came  along,  and  I  started  for  New 
Orleans  where  I  arrived  at  daylight  the  next  morn- 
ing. 

The  Scioto  sunk  to  her  spar  deck,  and  the  men  and 
officers  spent  the  night  on  deck  with  the  mosquitoes, 
being  taken  off  and  sent  to  New  Orleans  the  next 
day.  The  mosquitoes  are  so  large  on  the  banks  of  the 
lower  Mississippi,  that  they  may  be  killed  with  a 
shot-gun,  sometimes. 

I  had  quite  comfortable  quarters  in  the  Army  Hos- 
pital at  New  Orleans,  it  being  previously  the  St. 
James  Hotel. 

I  received  many  calls,  and  presents  of  delicacies, 
from  the  ladies  of  New  Orleans,  though  very  Confed- 
erate in  their  sentiments,  and  spent  three  weeks  there 
very  comfortably.  The  Confederate  ward  was  just 
above  me,  and  was  well  filled  with  wounded  "  rebs  " 
from  Port  Hudson.  As  the  visitors  to  the  Confeder- 
ates had  to  pass  my  door,  I  made  many  acquaintances 
among  them,  and  as  I  have  said  received  considerable 
attention. 

IF   YOU    CAN    ONLY   KEEP    IT. 

While  lying  at  the  New  York  Navy  Yard  ono  of 
our  men,  a  captain  of  the  foretop,  was  returning 
from  liberty  and  coming  down  the  wharf,  bound  for 
the  ship;  the  night  being  dark,  he  ran  into  a  big  man 


OIT   A   MA3f-OF-WAR.  137 

in  a  heavy  coat,  who  was  coming  in  the  opposite 
direction. 

"  Do  you  know  who  you  are  running  into  ?"  said 
the  stranger. 

"No,  I  don't,"  said  the  inebriated  son  of  the  sea, 
"  and,  what's  more,  I  don't  care  a  continental." 

"  Well,  sir,  I  am  Admiral ,  and  I  am  in  com- 
mand of  this  yard." 

"Well,  admiral,"  said  the  unabashed  man-of- wars- 
man,  while  remembrances  of  the  ups  and  downs  in 
his  own  checkered  career  on  board  ship  flashed 
through  his  mind,  "that's  a  mighty  good  billet  if 
you  can  only  Tceep  it" 

HKATK  BOUND. 

An  old  lady  passing  along  the  dock,  saw  some  sail- 
ors on  board  of  one  of  the  lake  schooners  heaving  up 
anchor.  The  anchor  was  up  to  the  hawse-hole,  but  the 
men  not  noticing  it,  continued  hauling,  with  a, 

"Yah  heave  oh." 

*  Wefl ! "  said  she,  "  you  may  <  Yah  heave  oh '  just 
as  much  as  ye  like,  but  if  you  pull  that  crooked  iron 
through  that  little  hole  in  a  hurry,  I'm  mistaken. 


138  ON   A   MAN-OF-WAR. 


LETTER  XIV. 

"  The  plenteous  board,  high  heap'd  with  cates  divine, 
And  o'er  the  foaming  bowl  the  laughing  wine." 

ON   THE    SOUTH   PACIFIC    STATION  —  AT   CALLAO. 

I  happened  to  be  navigator  of  the  Tuscarora  on 
the  South  Pacific  Station  in  1868,  at  the  time  of  the 
great  earthquake  of  that  year,  and  think  that  some 
description  might  be  of  some  interest  to  you. 

When  the  Tuscarora  came  into  the  Bay  of  Callao, 
in  latitude  twelve  degrees  south,  to  report  to  the 
admiral  commanding  the  squadron,  there  were  sev- 
eral English,  French  and  Peruvian  men-of-war,  as 
well  as  three  or  four  of  our  own  ships,  lying  at 
anchor. 

Permission  having  been  given  us  by  signal  to 
anchor,  the  commander  of  the  Tuscarora,  of  course, 
called  at  once  on  the  admiral,  to  report  his  arrival  and 
receive  orders  as  to  the  disposition  of  his  ship.  Upon 
his  return  he  notified  the  executive  officer  that  we 
would  remain  in  Callao  for  a  few  days,  and  that  the 
officers  would  be  permitted  to  visit  the  shore. 

NAVAL   COURTESIES. 

As  is  the  custom,  the  officers  of  all  the  different 
ships  came  on  board  the  next  day  to  call  and  get 


OX    A    MAN-OF-WAR.  139 

acquainted,  excepting  the  officers  of  the  English 
frigate  Topaz. 

We  promptly  returned  the  visits  of  the  Reindeers, 
L'Etoiles,  Powhatans,  Independencias  and  Huascars, 
but  never  went  near  the  Topaz.  Xot  long  after  some 
of  our  English  naval  friends  laughingly  told  us  that 
the  Topaz  officers  said: 

"  That  they  daren't  go  near  those  Tuscarora  fel- 
lows, vou  knaw;  thev's  such  blawsted  swells,  you 
knaw;  they  wear  epaulets  on  Sundays  and  won't  call 
on  you  unless  you  call  first  with  your  card  turned 
down  at  every  corner,  you  knaw." 

We  afterwards  got  well  acquainted  with  the  Topaz 
officers,  and  found  them  very  jolly  and  pleasant  fel- 
lows, indeed. 

The  climate  of  Callao  seemed  to  me  about  the 
same  all  the  year  round,  but  the  natives  called  the 
seasons  by  different  names  as  do  we.  I  never  knew, 
however,  after  being  on  the  station  two  and  a  half 
years,  whether  winter  was  in  June  or  November. 

I  have  a  faint  recollection  of  asking  for  grapes 
once  in  June,  and  being  laughed  at;  being  told  that 
we  had  oranges  in  June  but  grapes  in  January. 

I  was  very  much  astonished  on  going  into  a  barber 
shop  one  dav  in  Lima  to  get  shaved,  at  being  told  by 
the  barber,  after  shaving  me,  that  I  must  get  up  and 
wash  my  own  face. 


140  ON   A   MAN-OF-WAR. 

In  the  shops  you  are  expected  to  beat  down  the 
price  always,  until  you  are  gravely  assured  that  "  la 
ultima "  is  reached,  when  you  calmly  pay  the  price 
and  go. 

I  promptly  informed  one  diamond  seller  that  I  was 
a  North  American,  whereupon  he  apologized  and 
gave  me  the  lowest  price  at  once. 

One  day,  wishing  a  door-key  made,  I  asked  in  Span- 
ish, 

"  When  can  I  have  it  ?  " 

The  smith  answered, 

"  Oh,  Pasada  Manana  ! "     (Day  after  to-morrow.) 

Noting  his  English  accent,  I  said: 

"  I  am  an  American,  sir,  when  can  I  have  the  key  ?  " 

"  I  beg  your  pardon,  sir,"  said  the  Englishman,  "  I 
thought  you  were  a  Dago.  Come  in  half  an  hour." 

WARD-BOOM   MESS. 

There  were  twenty  of  us  in  the  ward-room  mess, 
the  executive  officer  sitting  at  the  forward  end  of  the 
table,  and  the  paymaster,  who  was  the  caterer,  sit- 
ting at  the  after  end,  the  line  officers,  that  is  lieuten- 
ants and  masters,  on  the  starboard  side  nearest  their 
state-rooms,  the  staff  officers,  engineers,  doctors  and 
paymasters,  on  the  port  side.  We  had  a  very  jolly 
mess,  I  assure  you.  Most  of  us  had  been  on  foreign 
stations,  and  we  could  relate  various  experiences  and 


ON   A   MAN-OF-WAR.  141 

tell  stories  culled  from  every  quarter  of  the  world. 
We  had  lunch  at  8  A.  M.,  consisting  of  coffee,  choc- 
olate, toast,  oranges,  bananas,  ripe  figs,  peeled  and 
eaten  with  cream  and  powdered  sugar;  chiri-moyas, 
sweet,  ripe  and  custardy,  which  you  ate  with  a  spoon, 
holding  the  fruit  in  your  left  hand;  grenadillas, 
which  left  a  seed  wedged  in  between  every  tooth  in 
your  head,  delicious  pine-apples  from  Guayaquil 
(Y-a-keel),  and  grapes  from  Valparaiso  (Vale  of  Par- 
adise). 

By  11  o'clock  A,  M.,  the  most  of  the  drills  and  exer- 
cises being  over,  we  had  a  regular  meat  breakfast, 
"same  as  Melican  man."  At  five  P.  M.  we  had  a  din- 
ner of  seven  or  eight  courses,  flanked  with  appro- 
priate wines,  and  finished  with  a  delightful  Havana 
cigar. 

We  generally  purchased  wines  for  the  wine  mess, 
which  is  distinct  from  the  ward-room  mess,  in  Pan- 
ama, which  is  a  free  port,  and  where  the  best  could 
be  bought,  free  of  duty,  and  very  cheap,  and  cigare 
in  the  same  way. 

There  is  a  vague  idea,  prevalent  in  the  minds  of 
visitors  on  board  a  man-of-war,  that  the  government 
pays  for  the  entertainment  furnished  so  freely  to 
them;  that  there  is  a  fund  expressly  provided  by  a 
benevolent  Congress  to  buy  whisky  and  cigars  for  the 
men,  and  light  wines  and  biscuits  for  the  women, 
when  the  Americans  visit  one  of  their  ships. 


142  ON    A    MAN-OF-WAU. 

It  is  a  mistake;  give  the  officer  who  entertains  you 
credit  for  his  hospitality,  for  he  pays  for  what  he 
orders,  himself ;  and,  I  can  assure  you,  from  actual 
experience,  that  hospitality  as  it  is  freely  exercised 
on  board  ship,  is  costly,  and  forms  a  very  consider- 
able item  in  the  expense  account  of  a  naval  officer. 
In  rare  cases  table  money  is  allowed  admirals  for 
entertainment  of  royalty  abroad,  but  the  case  is  so 
rare  that  I  do  not  know  personally  of  a  single  one. 

When  a  ship  fits  out  for  sea, 

EACH  MESS  ELECTS  A  CATEEEB, 

who  takes  charge  of  the  mess  matters  and  accounts; 
a  vote  is  taken  and  generally  results  in  assessing  $100 
apiece,  outfit  for  crockery,  table  linen,  etc.,  and  $30 
a  month  in  advance  each  for  mess  bill. 

The  government  furnishes  servants,  fires  and  lights 
only.  The  midshipmen  mess  by  themselves,  in  the 
starboard  steerage,  and  live  in  proportion  to  their 
means. 

Frequently  a  midshipman  dines  in  the  cabin  or  in 
the  ward-room  by  invitation;  eats  his  own  dinner 
religiously  in  the  steerage  first,  borrows  all  the  clothes 
of  his  messmates  that  he  wants,  oftener  without  per- 
mission than  with,  and  enlarges  at  supper  for  the 
benefit  of  his  envious  shipmates  upon  what  he  had 
for  dinner  in  the  cabin.  The  wine  ! 


OfflT  A  MAX-OF-WAB,  113 

"Jim,  did  you  get  any  of  that  Madeira,  when  you 
dined  in  the  cabin,  that  the  skipper  brought  over  him- 
self?" 

"I  had  three  glasses  and  was  going  for  another 
when  old  Beeswax  asked  me  if  the  ship  wasn't  swing- 
ing, and  I  went  on  deck  to  tell  the  officer  of  the  deck 
to  tend  her  and  not  foul  the  anchor." 

"  THE  JOIXY  TUSCABOKAS." 

"  He  couM  on  other  side  dispute. 
Confute,  change  hands,  and  soil  confute" 

Sometimes  topics  would  fail  at  table,  and  every 
occasion  was  eagerly  sought  that  would  make  talk; 
if  a  fellow  said  a  thing  was  all  colors,  black,  red, 
white,  etc.,  he  was  quickly  taken  up  by  some  argu- 
mentative cuss,  who  offered  to  bet  him  $5  that  black 
was  not  a  color,  or  he  would  take  the  opposite  side 
and  prove  that  black  and  white  tcere  colors. 

It  got  so  that  they  said  aboard  the  other  ships  that 
an  officer  of  the  Tuscarora  never  came  out  of  his 
state-room  to  breakfast  and  ventured  the  remark  that 
it  was  a  pleasant  day,  without  first  laying  a  $5  bill 
down  by  his  plate  in  case  it  should  be  disputed. 

Some  visitors  were  on  board  one  day  and  were 
admiring 

THE  KEAT.3i.IiSS  OF  THE  SHIP, 

the  whiteness  of  the  decks,  and  so  forth,  and  walk- 
ing forward  were  attracted  by  the  extraordinary  care 


144:  ON   A   MAN-OF-WAR. 

shown  in  the  appearance  of  the  pivot  gun;  the  car- 
riage was  pure  white,  the  bolts  were  jet  black;  the 
gun,  itself,  coated  with  a  lacquer  of  bees-wax  and 
blacking,  was  laboriously  polished  with  corks  until 
you  could  see  your  face  in  it.  One  of  the  ladies 
admiringly  passed  her  delicately  gloved  hand  over 
the  smooth  surface  of  the  gun,  and  exclaimed, 

"  How  glossy  and  smooth  it  is," 

to  the  great  disgust  of  the  old  quarter  gunner,  who 
muttered  as  the  party  turned  away, 

"  They  ain't  satisfied  to  look  at  at  a  gun  without 
sticking  their  d d  dirty  paws  all  over  it." 

THE    MIDSHIPMEN 

generally  live  like  fighting  cocks  in  port,  and,  from 
dire  necessity,  on  their  rations  when  at  sea,  and  fre- 
quent cruises  are  very  necessary  to  compel  the 
improvident  youngsters  to  save  enough  money  at  sea, 
where  they  can't  spend  it,  to  carry  them  decently 
through  while  in  port.  It  is  such  a  nuisance  for  a 
midshipman  to  have  to  pay  out  good  money  for  his 
daily  bread,  that  the  marrying  of  a  girl  who  can  pay 
her  own  mess  bill,  is  the  universal  foundation  stone  in 
the  Spanish  castle  of  every  incipient  Nelson  in  the 
service. 

There  is  an  idea  that  a  naval  officer,  in  addition  to 
his  pay,  gets  a  certain  number  of  rations,  which  com- 


ON   A   MAN-OF-WAR.  145 

muted,  forms  a  handsome  sum  of  money.  This  is 
not  true.  Each  officer,  petty  officer,  seaman,  ordinary 
seaman,  landsman  or  marine,  receives  one  ration 
worth  twenty -five  cents  per  day,  and  in  default  of  the 
spirit  ration,  which  used  to  be  issued  (a  tot  of 
grog)  twice  a  day,  he  receives  five  cents. 

"  For  they've  raisoi  his  pay  flve  cents  a  day. 
But  stopped  his  grog  forever." 

Officers  generally  commute  their  ration,  drawing 
the  thirty  cents  a  day  in  cash.  The  caterer  of  the 
mess  is  allowed  to  draw  from  the  paymaster  double 
the  amount  of  the  ration  of  any  article  allowed,  by 
paying  for  it,  provided  that  the  men  are  not 
deprived  thereby. 

A     GENIAL    OLD    COMMODORE. 

One  of  our  vessels  lay  at  anchor  in  the  Bay  of 
Naples;  the  old  commodore  had  quarantined  every 
midshipman  to  the  ship  for  some  infraction  of  dis- 
cipline. They  hadn't  their  copy  of  the  watch  quar- 
ter and  station  bill,  or  the  log  written  up,  or  they 
had  neglected  to  work  their  "day's  work"  (of  "dead 
reckoning"),  perhaps;  anyway  the  old  scalawag  had 
said  that  not  a  midshipman  should  leave  the  ship. 
Just  as  the  3  o'clock  boat  was  called  away  a  few  of 
the  youngsters  were  disconsolately  walking  up  and 
down  the  port  side  of  the  quarter-deck,  or  peeing 


146  ON    A   MAN-OF-WAK. 

over  the  gangway,  longingly  looking  ashore,  trying 
to  "  see  Naples  and  not  die,"  and  furtively  watching 
the  old  commodore  as  he  paced  up  and  down  the 
deck.  Suddenly  he  stopped,  and  looking  at  the 
victims,  sternly  said: 

"  I  suppose  you  young  gentlemen  would  like  to  go 
ashore,  wouldn't  ye  ?  " 

"Yes,  sir;  oh!  yes,  sir," 
was  the  eager  and  unanimous  response. 

"  Well,  ye — a — ca-an't — go," 
the  old  cuss,  drawled  out,  and  stumped  off   into  the 

cabin. 

WIND  IT,  JACK. 

I  never  saw  a  sailor  that  claimed  to  have  any  stock 
in  babies,  but  they  tell  of  one  who  came  up  to  the 
font  to  have  his  baby  baptized,  and,  of  course  pre- 
sented the  infant,  feet  foremost. 

"  The  other  way," 

said  the  minister  benignly,  and  Jack  accordingly 
turned  the  infant  upside  down. 

"  Excuse  me,"  said  the  clergyman,  "  I  mean  the 
other  way." 

So  back  came  the  embryo  foretopman  to  the  first 
position  again,  to  the  evident  discouragement  of  all 
hands. 

*  "  Wind  it,  Jack,"  said  the  nautical  assistant,  and, 


••^Vhen  a  ship  is  swung  half  way  round,  or  bow  for  stern,  the  opera- 
tion is  termed  wmding  ship. 


ON   A   MAN-OF-WAK.  147 

with  an  "  Aye,  aye,  sir,"  Jack  promptly  turned  the 
baby  "  end  for  end,"  and  it  was  duly  christened 
head  first. 

I  started  out  to  tell  of  the  great  earthquake,  I 
believe,  and  I  see  that  I  have  wound  up  with  a  little 
one.  Well,  perhaps,  I  may  get  to  it  in  another 
letter. 


148  ON   A   MAN-OF-WAR. 


LETTER  XV. 

Imprison'd  fires,  in  the  close  dungeons  pent, 
Roar  to  get  loose,  and  struggle  for  a  vent: 
Eating  their  way,  and  undermining  all, 
Till  with  a  mighty  burst  whole  mountains  fall" 

ON    THE    SOUTH    PACIFIC    STATION THE    EARTHQUAKE. 

This  is  really  about  the  earthquake  this  time, 
though  I  am  well  aware  that  it  will  not  prove  as 
interesting  to  you  as  it  was  to  the  Peruvians. 

One  beautiful  afternoon  in  the  year  1868 — it  don't 
make  any  material  difference  what  time  of  year  it 
was,  as  only  an  expert  could  tell  the  difference  be- 
tween summer  and  winter — the  P.  S.  N.  Co.'s  steamer 
Santiago,  bound  south  from  Panama,  came  into  the 
open  harbor  of  Chala,  Peru,  and  anchored ;  in  an 
instant  the  custom-house  officers  were  along  side  and 
on  board,  with  several  of  the  prominent  merchants, 
all  eager  for  the  letters  and  news  from  the  north,  this 
line  of  steamers  being  their  only  channel  of  commu- 
nication with  the  outside  world,  shut  in  as  they  were, 
by  the  lofty  and  almost  impassable  Andes  mountains, 
whose  snow-clad  peaks  towered  above  them,  reaching 
an  altitude  of  20,000  feet,  within  thirty  miles  of  the 
town. 

Suddenly  the  confused  babel  of  cries  from  the 
balsas,  and  innumerable  small  boats  surrounding  the 
steamer,  united  in  a  terrified  shout  of 


ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR.  149 

"TEBRE  MOTO,"  "TEBBB  MOTO, 

and  away  they  polled  toward  the  shore.  There  were 
one  or  two  North  American  ladies  on  board,  who, 
leaning  idly  over  the  rail,  were  curiously  watching 
the,  to  them,  novel  scene.  They  heard  the  shout  and 
were  startled  by  seeing  the  boats  suddenly  pull  fran- 
tically toward  the  shore.  What  could  "  terre  moto  " 
mean  ;  the  passengers  on  board  wrung  their  hands 
and  threw  themselves  face  downwards  on  the  decks, 
moaning  and  crying  as  if  they  expected  instant 
death.  On  shore  a  cloud  of  dust  enveloped  the 
town ;  the  low  adobe  houses  rocked,  swayed  and  fell, 
the  dry  pulverized  earth  mounting  in  a  cloud  heaven- 
ward; the  merchants  from  Chala,  who  had  come  on 
board,  begged  to  be  put  on  shore,  but  the  captain 
refused  to  man  a  boat.  Suddenly  the  sea  rose, 

"El  mar? 

shrieked  the  frightened  wretches,  groveling  on  the 
decks  in  a  very  paroxysm  of  terror. 

"  Nbmbre  de  Dies  !    El  mar." 

The  sea  rose  between  the  ship  and  shore,  and  swept, 
in  a  wave  from  forty  to  fifty  feet  in  height,  over  the 
town,  rising  and  falling  with  great  rapidity,  marking 
on  the  dry,  sandy  cliff  the  height  of  the  water,  far 
above  the  highest  house;  and  the  town,  the  pretty 
little  Town  of 

CHALA    WAS    DESTBOTBD. 


150  ON   A  MAN-OF-WAR. 

Back  and  forth  sped  the  vessels  lying,  or  which  had 
been  lying,  at  anchor  ;  some  went  down  ;  some  were 
driven  out  to  sea ;  some  whirled  round  like  tops, 
while  the  iron  steamer  trembled  and  rattled  as  if  she 
were  striking  on  the  bottom  of  the  bay. 

One  vessel  quite  near,  that  seemed  to  be  in  a 
whirlpool,  she  swung  round  so  rapidly,  had  three 
persons  on  board,  who  rent  the  air  with  their  cries; 
volunteers  being  called  for,  a  boat  was  quickly 
manned  from  the  Santiago,  and  the  men,  flinging 
themselves  into  the  water,  were  rescued  and  brought 
on  board. 

By  this  time  the  water  was  so  disturbed  that  the 
captain  of  the  Santiago  determined  to  seek  safety 
farther  off,  and  not  a  moment  too  soon;  for  just  then 
the  steamer  tugged  violently  and  parted  her  anchor 
chain,  and  away  she  went  seaward,  under  full  steam, 
and  on  top  of  a  receding  wave  that  left  bare  the  spot 
where  she  had  been  anchored  two  minutes  before  in 
five  fathoms  of  water. 

It  was  a  narrow  escape,  for  if  she  had  touched  the 
bottom,  the  next  wave  would  have  swept  over  her, 
and  the  details  of  the  earthquake,  so  far  as  the  San- 
tiago could  furnish,  would  have  been,  like  the  town 
of  Chala,  lost. 

There  were  some  passengers  on  board  for  Chala, 
besides  the  merchants,  who  could  not  get  ashore,  and 


ON   A    MAX-OF-WAB.  151 

they  were  nearly  distracted  ;  bat  the  captain  would 
not  yield,  and  kept  on  his  coarse  toward  Arica,  some 
•200  miles  to  the  southward. 

ARICA 

was  a  very  pretty  little  town  about  400  miles  south- 
east from  Callao,  and  situated  in  the  old  bed  of  a 
river,  with  lofty  mountains  on  each  side;  a  railroad 
ran  along  near  the  sea,  back  round  the  mountain, 
some  thirty  miles  to  the  town  of  Tacna.  There  was 
a  mole,  or  wharf,  a  custom-house  and  a  number  of 
pretty  houses,  with  a  grove  of  olive  trees,  which 
maintained  a  bare  existence,  being  watered  carefully 
and  tended  as  a  curiosity  almost,  by  the  inhabitants 
of  this  otherwise  dreary,  dreary  coast  town.  The 
United  States  steamer  "Wateree,  a  double-ender,  and 
the  store  ship  Fredonia,  were  stationed  here  ;  and, 
by-the-by,  orders  detaching  me  from  the  Tuscarora, 
and  ordering  me  as  executive  officer  of  the  Fredonia 
were  on  board  that  very  steamer,  the  Santiago,  so 
Arica  promised  to  be  a  very  interesting  place  to  me, 
I  assure  you  ;  and,  too,  there  were  passengers  on 
board  for  Arica,  who  asked  piteously  of  the  captain 
if  he  really  thought  that  the  earthquake  had  reached 
as  far  south  as  Arica;  others,  who  had  left  Callao  in 
the  steamer,  were  equally  anxious  about  their  homes, 
as  they  were  speeding  away  from  them ;  for  they 


152  ON    A    MAN-OF-WAK. 

must  go  on;  there  was  no  stopping,  and  no  place  to 
stop. 

Well,  the  steamer  came  in  sight  of  the  town  about 
eight  o'clock  in  the  morning  ;  there  was  the  town, 
certainly,  but  where  was  the  shipping  ;  where  was 
the  Fredonia ;  where  the  custom-house ;  what  had 
become  of  the  olive  grove  and  several  large  trees  for 
which  this  little  place  was  noted  ? 

Halloo!  there's  the  Wateree  about  400  yards  up  on 
the  beach.  She  seems  to  be  all  right,  with  her  boats 
hoisted,  her  flag  flying,  but  what  is  she  doing  so  far 
from  the  water  ? 

Soon  a  boat  pulled  off  to  the  steamer  and  brought 

THE    NEWS    OF    THE    EARTHQUAKE 

in  Arica.  The  town  was  destroyed ;  the  Fredonia 
went  down  with  all  hands ;  the  merchant  ship  Cha- 
nai^illo  lay  on  the  beach  with  her  chain  wrapped 
thrice  around  her,  showing  that  she  had  been  rolled 
over  and  over  by  the  waves  ;  that  ship,  there,  on  the 
beach  with  her  back  broken,  is  the  Peruvian  corvette 
America.  The  Wateree  is  up  there,  back  of  where 
was  once  the  olive  grove,  all  right  and  no  one  hurt, 
and  so  on  with  a  long  list  of  casualties. 

"Have  you  any  water  to  spare  captain;  the  distill- 
ing works  on  the  beach  were  destroyed,  and  we  have 
no  water.  There  is  enough  in  the  little  stream  to 


01T   A   MAN-OF-WAR.  153 

quench  the  thirst  of  the  people  left,  but  there  is  great 
suffering,  notwithstanding." 

The  Santiago  went  on  from  port  to  port,  listening 
to  stories  which  were  a  mere  repetition  of  what  had 
gone  before,  until  we  struck  Valparaiso,  where  a 
large  number  of  vessels  lay  at  anchor  in  the  deep 
waters  of  the  bay.  Here  they  had  had  no  earthquake, 
no  tidal  wave,  beyond  a  trifling  rise  in  the  water,  and 
were  astonished  to  hear  the  story  brought  by  the 
Santiago,  of  the  ruins  and  desolation  she  had  wit- 


The  Tuscarora  was  at  once  ordered  to  Arica  with 
supplies  for  the  suffering  people,  and  we  sailed  in 
three  or  four  days  for  that  port. 

On  arriving  at  Arica  I  went  on  shore  to  see  the 
ruin  that  bad  been  caused  by  the  earthquake.  I  can 
better  describe  the  appearance  if  you  can  imagine 
the  scene  of  some  great  conflagration, 

T.TKK    CHICAGO    AFTER   THB   FIBS, 

without  the  mark  of  fire  itself.  The  buildings  had 
been  crushed,  and  parts  of  them  washed  into  the  sea 
by  the  waves.  The  people  had  erected  sheds,  tents, 
and  all  sorts  of  contrivances  to  keep  off  the  sun 
(there's  no  rain  in  Peru  to  keep  off),  and  the  destitu- 
tion and  suffering  were  very  great.  As  we  landed 
on  the  beach  and  started  up  toward  the  town  two 


154  ON    A    MAN-OF-WAB. 

nice-looking  girls,  black  as  the  ace  of  spades,  passed 
us,  and  after  the  custom  of  the  country  said, 

" £uenas  dias,  caballeros" 

"  JBuenas  dias,  senoritas" 

we  gravely  responded,  raising  our  caps,  and  kept  on 
our  way,  half  expecting  to  hear  a  "  yah,  yah,"  such 
as  we  might  have  heard  in  our  own  country. 

The  English  consul,  an  old  resident  of  Arica, 
described  to  me  the  fearful  day  substantially  as  fol- 
lows : 

"  I  felt  the  rocking  of  the  house,  and  thought  per- 
haps it  was  only  a  temblor  (a  word  corresponding  to 
shake  and  not  dangerous),  but  as  it  continued  vio- 
lently, I  was  convinced  that  it  was  an  earthquake, 
terre  moto,  and,  calling  my  family  to  me,  we  gained 
the  street.  The  nurse,  with  my  youngest  child, 
started  for  the  mole,  but  I  compelled  her  to  come 
back  with  me,  and  we  turned  to  the  mountain.  Just 
then,  the  earth  opened  beneath  my  feet  and  warm 
water  came  up  ankle  deep,  where  before  it  was  dry 
sand.  Sulphurous  vapors  filled  the  air,  and  what 
with  the  dense  clouds  of  dust  caused  by  the  falling 
of  houses,  it  was  impossible  to  see  in  any  direction, 
and  almost  suffocating. 

"  •  With  hue  like  that  when  some  great  painter  dips 
His  pencil  in  the  gloom  of  earthquake  and  eclipse.' 

"  We  gained,  however,  the  principal  street  leading 


ON    A    MAN-OF-WAE.  155 

up  from  the  sea,  and  staggered  along  towards  the 
mountains. 

"THE  GBOum>  SHOOK  AXD  KOIXBD 
so  that  we  reeled  and  staggered  like  drunken  men. 
On  either  hand  we  saw  people  crushed  beneath  their 
houses,  groaning  piteously  and  calling  on  their  saints 
to  deliver  them.     Recognizing  me  they  called  out, 

"  *  O,  Senor  Consul,  ayudame  par  Vamor  de  Dios, 
y  de  todos  los  santos,  salve  me  I ' 

"  But  I  could  not  aid  them;  I  had  enough  to  help, 
and  so  passed  on.  Gaining  that  hill  yonder,  I  turned 
and  looked  towards  the  sea.  There  were  hundreds  of 
people  crowded  on  to  the  mole,  when  suddenly  there 
was  a  cry  of 

"  « El  mar,  El  mar '  (the  sea,  the  sea), 
and  I  saw  the  water  recede,  leaving  the  ground  bare 
for  a  mile  from  the  beach.  The  Fredonia  store-ship 
had  four  anchors  down,  moored  head  and  stern,  and 
when  the  water  went  out  it  left  her  high  and  dry, 
heeled  over  to  starboard.  The  Wateree  went  sea- 
wards at  about  twenty  miles  an  hour,  considerably 
faster  than  she  ever  went  before,  I  guess,  or  will  ever 
again.  Several  of  the  merchant  ships  got  foul  of 
each  other,  and  everything  on  the  water  seemed 
endowed  with  life. 

"  As  we  stood  there  the  sea  returned  in  a  wall  of 
water,  over  forty  feet  in  height,  bringing  the  ships 


156  ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR. 

in  with  it.  The  water  struck  the  Fredonia  and  passed 
over  her ;  on  it  came,  and  broke  over  the  custom- 
house. Again  the  sea  receded,  but  the  Fredonia  had 
disappeared,  crushed  beneath  that  wall  of  water 
which  had  licked  up  all  of  that  vast  crowd  on  the 
mole. 

"Again  and  again,  until  nine  times,  the  sea  came  in 
and  out,  each  time  the  wave  a  little  smaller,  until  it 
finally  ceased.  The  America  you  see  on  the  beach  ; 
the  Chanar9illo  as  well,  with  her  chain  wrapped  three 
times  round  her ;  the  Wateree,  too,  400  yards  from 
high-water  mark,  is 

THE    ONLY    VESSEL  UNINJUBED. 

"  The  rest  have  all  gone  down. 

"The  wife  of  the  executive  officer  of  the  Fredonia 
went  down  in  her.  Lieut.  J.'s  wife  is  dead.  Her 
husband  carried  her  in  his  arms  to  the  hill,  and  found 
that  she  was  dead,  killed  by  the  fall  of  the  keystone 
of  the  arch  of  the  house ;  the  town,  as  you  see,  is 
destroyed ;  the  people  are  starving ;  they  cannot  get 
away,  as  they  have  no  money  to  pay  their  fare  on  the 
steamer,  and  there  is  no  other  way. 

"The  railroad  track  was  torn  up  for  miles;  the 
heavy  iron  columns  of  the  custom-house  were  twisted, 
broken  and  carried  two  miles  from  their  original 
position  ;  the  old  grave-yard,  the  other  side  of  the 


ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR.  157 

bluff,  was  laid  bare,  and  hundreds  of  corpses  (mum- 
mies, Kilpatrick  called  them),  exposed  to  view,  curi- 
ous old  Indian  pipes  and  relics  being  scattered 
about." 

I  went  on  board  the  Wateree  and  found  her  quietly 
resting  at  the  foot  of  a  hill,  with  her  anchor  down 
and  a  little  astern  of  her,  showing  that  at  some  period 
of  her  flight  she  had  been  farther  in  shore  than  where 
she  now  rested.  Had  she  grounded  then,  on  the  hill, 
instead  of  at  the  foot  of  it,  it  is  more  than  probable 
that  she  would  have  rolled  down  the  hill  and  killed 
all  hands  on  board.  While  on  board,  nearly  every 
day  the  ship  would  shake  from  stem  to  stern,  and  the 
iron  stack  would  rattle  with  the  movement  of  the 
temblor,  and  we  would  run  on  deck  to  see  the  fright- 
ened people  hurrying  from  their  temporary  homes  in 
fear  and  dread  of  another  terre  moto. 

We  rode  out  one  day  on  mnle  back  to  the  English 
consul's  new  residence,  some  three  miles  from  Arica. 
The  road  was  over  a  hot,  dusty,  sandy  incline,  up  the 
mountain,  the  crust  sounding  hollow  under  our  ani- 
mals' hoofs.  The  wife  of  the  consul,  a  bright  little 
woman,  received  us  very  cordially  and  gave  us  a  glass 
of  Pisco  sherry. 

She  was  much  amused,  when  in  answer  to  her 
question  I  said, 

"  Jfi  muela  (back  tooth)  no  anda  Men?  instead  of 
Mula  (mule). 


158  ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR. 

On  our  return,  as  we  rode  along,  smoking,  a  big 
negress  stopped  us  with  the  salutation, 

"  Deme  un  puro,  cctballeros  "  (give  me  an  Havana 
segar,  gentlemen), 

and  walked  off  highly  delighted,  smoking   a   segar 
four  inches  lontr. 


ON    A    MAN-OF-WAB,  159 


LETTER   XVL 

"  In  sheets  of  rain  the  sky  descends, 
And  ocean  swell'd  with  waters  upward  tends; 
One  rising,  falling  one,  the  heavens  and  sea 
Meet  at  their  confines  in  the  middle  way." 

FBOM  CALLAO  TO  PANAMA  IN  1869 THE  TRADE-WINDS 

AND  THE  COAST  CURRENTS A  NIGHT  ON  DECK  IN 

THE  BAY  OF  PANAMA AN  UNHERALDED  STORM 

STEERING  BY  INFERENCE PAST  THE  ROCKS  IN 

SAFETY A  CLEAR  SKY  AND  A  GOOD  ANCHORAGE — 

THE  TIDES  IN  THE  BAY  OF  PANAMA THE  RETURN 

TO  CALLAO THE  QUARTER-DECK A  BULLY  STORY 

— PAT  MURPHY'S  ROOSTER. 

One  warm  day  in  June,  1869,  the  United  States 
ship  Onward,  to  which  I  was  attached,  was  ordered 
to  proceed  from  Callao,  Peru,  to  Panama  for  stores 
for  the  squadron.  The  Onward  was  a  half  clipper, 
and  sailed  beautifully.  We  got  under  weigh,  and 

WITH  EVERYTHING  SET,  ALOW  AND  ALOFT, 

and  with  stun-sails  both  sides,  we  ran  swiftly  along 
to  the  northward,  borne  on  by  the  Peruvian  current 
and  trade- wind  toward  Panama. 

The  trade-wind  blows  throughout  the  year,  varying 
from  south  to  south  southeast,  freshening,  at  Callao, 
with  unvarying  regularity,  at  4  p.  M.  each  day. 


160  ON    A    MAN-OF-WAK. 

The  Peruvian  and  Mexican  coast  currents  corre- 
spond somewhat  to  the  gulf  stream  of  the  Atlantic, 
flowing  northward  from  Chili  to  Oregon,  at  the  rate 
of  about  two  knots  per  hour,  tempering  materially 
the  climate  of  the  countries  past  which  they  flow. 

In  about  a  week, 

WB   ENTEBED    THE    BAY    OF   PANAMA, 

at  sunset,  and  hoped  to  reach  our  anchorage  the  same 
evening. 

As  we  proceeded,  however,  the  wind  continuing  to 
haul,  we  took  in  the  studding-sails  and  braced  the 
yards  sharp  up.  It  was  now  about  two  bells  (9  P.  M.), 
and  being  unable  to  weather  the  point  we  tacked  and 
stood  off  shore. 

The  wind  now  almost  died  away,  and  we  made  only 
about  three  knots  an  hour,  so  I  took  the  deck,  and 
with  the  navigator,  we  tacked  back  and  forth  all 
night.  We  had  a  small  crew,  and  had  to  work  all 
hands  all  night,  but  as  they  lay  down  at  their  stations 
and  slept  until  called  up  by  the  order  "  ready  about," 
they  did  not  suffer  much.  As  for  Charley  C.,  the 
navigator,  and  myself,  we  drank  brandy  and  water 
and  smoked  Havanas  all  night  under  a  clear  tropical 
sky,  rousing  the  men  up  about  every  two  hours  to 
tack  ship. 


OH   A   MAN-OF-WAK.  161 

A   PRKMOXTTIOS. 

At  8  o'clock  A.  x.  the  officer  of  the  forenoon  watch 
took  the  deck  and  I  went  down  for  some  coffee ;  for 
some  reason,  however,  1  felt  restless  and  uneasy,  and 
soon  came  up  on  deck  again,  allowing  the  officer  to 
go  below.  The  sea  was  like  glass;  the  ship  had  every 
sail  set,  to  royal  and  flying  jib,  but  lay  motionless  on 
the  water,  "as  idle  as  a  painted  ship  upon  a  painted 
ocean."  Two  or  three  miles  away  was  Ship  Rock, 
while  beyond  was  the  harbor  of  Panama,  with  its 
long  lines  of  reefs,  sharp  as  knives,  as  an  unlucky 
vessel  soon  finds  when  she  strikes  one  of  them. 

I  looked  around  the  horizon,  but  saw  nothing  un- 
usual save  a  darkish  cloud  off  the  quarter.  From 
habit  I  looked  at  the  compass,  and  noted  that  the 
Columbian  man-of-war  Bolivar  bore  N.  N.  W.  from 
us,  about  six  miles  distant. 

SUDDK>TLY   THKRE   WAS   A   BUSHING   SOUXD, 

and  the  storm  was  almost  upon  us. 

"  Top-gallant  and  royal  clewlines !  Flying  jib  down 
haul ! "  I  shouted;  "  quick's  your  play." 

"  In  royal  and  top-gallant  sails;  down  flying  jib  !  ** 

"  Fore  and  main  clew  garnets  and  buntlines." 

•*  Haul  taut;  up  courses ! 

"Hands  by  the  topsail  halliards !" 

"A  hand  in  the  chains." 
i] 


162  ON    A   MAN-OF-WAR. 

The  ship  was  now  bounding  along  about  twelve 
miles  an  hour;  the  rain  fell  in  torrents,  so  that  you 
could  not  see  the  bow  of  the  ship;  half  an  hour  would 
bring  us  on  the  reefs;  you  could  tell  nothing  from  a 
chart,  as  we  were  in  a  land-locked  harbor. 

"  Keep  her  N.  N.  W.,  quartermaster,"  I  said,  as  I 
remembered  the  bearing  of  the  Bolivar. 

"  N.  N.  W  ?  "  asked  the  navigator,  doubtingly,  as 
he  ran  up  the  hatch. 

"  Are  you  sure  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  I  said,  "  but  you  had  better  keep  a  sharp 
lookout  for  Ship  Rock  on  the  port  bow,  unless  you 
want  to  swim  for  it." 

"  What  water  ?  "  I  asked  the  man  in  the  chains  at 
the  lead,  who  looked  as  if  a  cascade  had  exploded 
over  him. 

"  Can't  get  bottom,  sir;  going  too  fast,"  he  replied. 

"  It's  somewhat  important  to  know,  Burns,"  I  said, 
cheerfully,  "  and  we're  going  faster  than  I  really  wish 
to  myself." 

"  There  she  is,"  came  from  a  score  of  eager  throats, 
as  Ship  Rock  loomed  up  majestically  through  the 
driving  rain,  on  our  port  bow,  and  I  knew  that 

WE    WERE    HEADED    ALL    EIGHT. 

We  could  see  by  the  change  in  the  color  that  we 
were  shoaling  our  water  rapidly,  so  I  clewed  up  the 


ON   A    MAN-OF-WAK.  163 

topsails  and  let  her  run  on,  driven  only  by  the  force 
of  the  wind  on  the  sails,  as  they  hung  ready  for 
furling. 

"  A  ship  which  hath  struck  sail  doth  run 
By  force  of  that  force  which  before  it  woo." 

After  running  for  about  ten  minutes  this  way,  the 
speed  of  the  ship  was  so  much  reduced,  that  the 
leadsman  got  bottom,  and  called  out: 

"By  the  mark,  five." 

"  The  lead  once  more  the  seaman  flung, 
And  to  the  watchful  pilot  sun°: — 

'  Quarter  less — five."* 

And  I  tell  you  we  were  glad  to  hear  from  him,  too. 
Judging  that  we  were  about  where  we  ought  to  be, 
and  where  we  "would  do  the  most  good,"  we  put 
down  the  helm,  and  as  she  came  up  head  to  the  wind, 
and  commenced  to  go  astern,  down  went  the  star- 
board anchor.  The  rain  stopped  instantly, 

THB    SKY    CLEABED    AT    ONCE, 

the  sun  came  out  red-hot,  and  we  were  in  as  nice  a 
berth  as  if  we  had  taken  all  day  to  pick  it  out.  But 
I  don't  want  to  do  so  any  more.  Talk  about  turning 
gray  in  a  single  night  !  Some  of  us  turned  green  in 
half  an  hour,  and  haven't  quite  recovered  from  it 
yet. 

Well,  about  4  o'clock,  after  furling  sail  and  seeing 
all  snug,  the  captain,  who  had  been  very  sick  in  the 


164:  ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR. 

cabin  during  the  whole  trip,  and  myself,  took  the  gig- 
and  pulled  ashore  to  Panama,  distant  about  three  and 
a  half  miles.  .  The  sun  was  very  hot,  but  the  men 
were  in  cool  white,  and,  with  the  awning  spread, 
pulled  leisurely  in  to  the  landing. 

A  TREMENDOUS  TIDE. 

All  of  the  large  steamers  and  shipping  are  obliged 
to  anchor  about  three  and  a  half  miles  from  Panama, 
out  in  the  bay,  on  account  of  the  tremendous  rise  and 
fall  of  the  tide — twenty-five  feet.  At  low  tide  you 
can  walk  out  on  the  reefs  a  mile  and  a  half  from  the 
wharf,  where  at  high  tide,  there  is  fifteen  feet  of 
water.  It  is  very  frequent  for  captains  to  warp  their 
vessels  into  a  suitable  place,  shoring  them  up  as  the 
tide  falls,  until,  left  high  and  dry,  such  cleaning  or 
repairs  are  made  as  can  be  done  during  the  six  hours 
of  low  water. 

Panama  is  a,  free  port,  and  we  took  occasion  to  lay 
in  all  sorts  of  stores,  wines,  cigars  and  liquors,  which 
were  very  cheap  indeed,  thei-e  being  no  duty  on  them. 
We  unwillingly  laid  in  a  few  scorpions  and  centi- 
pedes also,  which  had  concealed  themselves  in  the  old 
stores  when  at  the  store-house.  They  did  not  prove 
dangerous,  however,  as  they  lose  their  poison  on 
board  ship,  where  they  have  no  poisonous  thing  to 
feed  upon.  In  Panama,  however,  we  always  took 


ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR.  165 

the  precaution  to  look  into  our  slippers  before  put- 
ting them  on  in  the  morning  to  be  sure  that  there 
were  no  centipedes  in  them. 

OFF   TO   THE   TURTLE  ISLANDS. 

After  spending  a  few  weeks  at  Panama,  we  got 
under  weigh  and  stood  out  to  sea  to  the  westward, 
close  hauled  on  the  port  tack. 

The  wind  blew  steadily  from  the  south  by  west,  and 
we  ran  along  west  by  south  for  several  hundred  miles, 
passing  close  to  the  Gallapagos,  or  Turtle  Islands, 
which  lie  just  on  the  equator  and  west  of  Ecuador. 

Large  numbers  of  turtles  are  shipped  from  these 
islands  to  all  parts  of  the  world,  as  they  are  very 
cheap,  and  require  no  food,  being  stowed  in  the  hold 
of  the  ship,  without  particular  attention,  for  four  or 
five  months. 

FIFTY-THREE  DAYS  CLOSE  HAULED  ON  THE  PORT   TACK. 

As  we  stood  off  shore,  the  wind  veered  gradually 
to  the  eastward,  and  when  about  2,200  miles  from  the 
coast,  we  were  running  nearly  due  south.  We  ran  on, 
still  on  the  port  tack,  "  full  and  by,"  until  we  sighted 
Easter  Island,  a  lone  island  in  the  Pacific  seldom  vis- 
ited by  vessels. 

Here  we  struck  the  trades,  and  ran  in  due  east  past 
the  Island  of  Juan  Fernandez  toward  Valparaiso,  in 
33  south  latitude,  and  getting  the  wind  dead  aft  came 
a-flying  with  studding-sails  set  both  sides. 


166  ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR. 

We  arrived  at  Callao,  which  is  in  a  straight  line 
from  Panama,  distant  1,300  miles,  in  sixty-three  days, 
having  sailed  7,400  miles  and  having  been  close- 
hauled  on  the  port  tack  fifty-three  days. 

THE  QUARTER-DECK. 

The  quarter-deck  of  a  man-of-war  is  the  sacred 
place  of  the  ship.  No  one  crosses  it  without  saluting 
by  raising  his  cap;  no  one  laughs,  talks,  or  whistles 
on  the  quarter-deck;  from  the  quarter-deck,  are  read 
all  general  orders,  and  the  articles  of  war.  Every 
Sunday  divine  service  is  read  on  the  quarter-deck. 

Whenever  an  officer,  however  high  his  rank,  comes 
on  deck,  he  salutes  the  deck;  and  the  officer  of  the 
watch  is  required  to  invariably  return  the  salute. 

The  starboard  side  of  the  quarter-deck,  in  port,  or 
the  weather  side,  at  sea,  is  to  be  kept  clear,  and  no 
one  save  the  commander,  the  executive,  and  the  offi- 
cer of  the  watch,  is  permitted  to  use  that  side  unless 
his  duty  compels  it. 

Jt  is  the  one  sacred  spot  on  board  ship  that  cannot 
be  profaned  with  impunity. 

SIZE  OP  SAILS. 

I  was  asked  the  other  day  about  how  large  was  the 
largest  sail  on  board  the  Sabine. 

The  length  of  the  main-yard  of  the  frigate  Sabine, 
which  was  only  a  second  rate,  was  105  feet,  and  the 


ON    A    MAX-OF-WAR.  167 

drop  of  her  mainsail  65  feet,  taking  14,000  yards  of 
canvas  for  an  entire  single  suit  of  her  sails.  If  her 
main-yard  was  laid  on  top  of  the  Bank  Block,  Gris- 
wold  street,  Detroit,  it  would  reach  nearly  over  the 
Seitz  Block  and  the  foot  of  the  sail  would  drag  on 
the  side  walk. 

EASE  OFF  YOUB  SPANKER  SHEET. 

A  sailor  was  coming  across  a  meadow  one  day 
when  a  bull  took  after  him,  of  course,  he  made  for 
the  fence;  when  almost  there,  he  looked  back  over  his 
shoulder,  and  seeing  that  the  bull  was  close  aboard, 
with  his  tail  sticking  straight  out  behind  him,  he 
shouted: 

"  Ease  off  your  spanker  sheet,  and  port  your  helm 
or  you'll  be  afoul  of  me." 

THAT  INFERNAL  OLD  BOOSTEB. 

One  dark  night,  about  midnight,  one  of  our  block- 
ading gunboats,  off  Mobile,  commanded  by  a  jolly 
commander,  since  in  command  of  the  Michigan  on 
the  lakes,  was  prowling  around,  seeking  something  to 
devour,  when  suddenly  a  cock  was  heard  to  crow  to 
seaward. 

In  an  instant,  every  man  was  on  the  alert,  the 
quick-witted  sailor  knew  that  cocks  didn't  crow  at 
sea,  unless  there  was  some  vessel  in  that  direction,  to 
crow  from,  and  they  all  knew,  from  their  sharpened 


168  ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR. 

appetites,  that  it  couldn't  be  from  a  blockader,  as 
every  old  rooster  in  the  squadron  had  been  eaten  up 
long  ago.  It  was  so  dark  that  you  could  not  see  a 
ship's  length  away,  so,  carefully  shrouding  every  light 
that  could  betray  them,  the  steamer's  head  was  turned 
in  the  direction  of  the  friendly  warning,  and  she 
stole  quietly  seaward. 

In  a  very  few  minutes,  the  black  hull  of  a  vessel 
loomed  up  out  of  the  darkness,  and  the  boats  being 
softly  lowered,  they  took  possession  of  the  prize,  a 
blockade  runner,  almost  before  the  captured  vessel 
was  aware  of  it. 

On  going  into  the  cabin  of  the  prize,  Capt.  J. 
found  that  it  was  commanded  by  Pat  Murphy,  an  old 
classmate  of  his,  who  had  thought  it  his  duty  to  ally 
his  fortunes  with  those  of  his  southern  State. 

"Look  here,  Jim,"  said  Murphy,  after  a  glass  of 
wine  had  mellowed  up  matters  a  little,  "  how  in  the 

d 1  did  you  know  I  was  here,  I  couldn't  see  you 

at  all." 

Jim  laughed  and  flapping  his  arms, 

"  Cock-a-doodle  doo,"  said  he. 

"  That  infernal  old  rooster  !  "  said  Murphy,  "  I  had 
given  orders  to  cut  his  head  off  to-morrow." 

"I  am  awful  glad  you  put  it  off,  Pat,"  said  J., 
"here's  to  his  health;  he's  worth  ten  thousand  dollars 
to  me." 


ON    A    MAN-OF-WAB,  169 


LETTER  XVIL 

"  Oh,  I  am  a  cook  and  a  captain  bold. 
And  the  mate  of  the  Nancy  brig, 
And  abo'sun  tight,  and  a  midshipmite^ 
And  the  crew  of  the  captain's  gig." 

SATURDAY    AND    ITS    DELIGHTS THE    NAVAL    OFFICERS 

OF    THREE    NATIONS    AT   THE    PRESIDENT'S    BALL    IN 

SANTIAGO THEIR  SUCCESS  AT  MAKING  THEMSELVES 

UNDERSTOOD HOW  THEY  SECURED  PARTNERS,  AND 

HOW  THEY    ENJOYED    THE    DANCING AN    EVENING 

ON  BOARD  SHIP SAILOR  BALLADS. 

It  was  Saturday  morning,  and  every  one  knows 
what  Saturday  is  on  board  a  man-of-war.  Thursday 
we  had  scrubbed  hammocks,  and  had  dodged  under 
the  dripping  strips  of  canvas,  stopped  on  the  ham- 
mock gantline,  in  a  rainbow  fore  and  aft  the  ship, 
from  stem  to  stern.  Friday  morning  the  men  had 
scrubbed  and  washed  clothes,  and  the  results  had 
been  dripping  from  the  sea-lines  between  the  main 
and  mizzen  rigging  for  two  hours,  over  the  port  side 
of  the  quarter-deck,  and  now,  Saturday,  a  general 
cleaning  day  was  upon  us. 

HOLY-STONES  AND  PRAYER-BOOKS. 

The  men  were  all  busy  getting  up  the  heavy  holy- 
stones and  sand,  with  the  smaller  ones,  called  prayer- 


170  ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR. 

books,  because  the  operators  have  to  go  on  their 
hands  and  knees  with  them  to  scour  out  the  many 
corners  on  board  ship.  "  A  hand  from  each  part  of 
the  ship  "  was  on  the  catamaran,*  armed  with  brooms, 
brushes,  sand  and  canvas,  scrubbing  copper;  the 
battery  was  cast  loose  and  run  in  and  out  as  required, 
to  enable  the  men  to  drag  the  heavy  holy-stones  back 
and  forth  over  the  decks,  where  the  guns  had  been. 
The  chain  pumps  were  going;  buckets  of  water 
splashing  all  over  the  decks;  quarter  gunners  scrub- 
bing their  sponge  and  rammer  handles;  quarter- 
masters, with  a  pile  of  bridge  gratings  to  holy-stone; 
the  officer  of  the  deck,  barefooted,  with  his  breeches 
rolled  up  to  his  knees,  was  pattering  about,  while  the 
executive  officer,  in  similar  attire,  was  making  him- 
self disagreeable  by  being  everywhere,  above  and 
below,  pointing  out  new  worlds  to  conquer,  and  see- 
ing everything. 

Well,  as  I  was  only  the  navigator  and  could  not 
scrub  my  sextants  or  wash  out  my  chronometers  very 
well,  I  said  smilingly  to  the  envious  and  bedraggled 
executive  officer,  my  superior, 

"  I  will  go  on  shore,  with  your  permission,"  and 
accordingly  I  got  on  shore  as  soon  as  I  could,  and 

*  The  term  "catamaran"  as  used  here  means  a  small  raft  upon 
which  the  sailor  stands  when  scrubbing  the  copper  on  the  exterior  of 
the  ship. 


OH   A   MAJf-OF-WAB.  171 

returned  in  the  afternoon,  to  find  everything  clean 
and  neat,  scrubbed  inside  and  out,  the  guns  secure, 
the  running  rigging  flemished  down,  and  the  men  sit- 
ting quietly  about  the  decks  with  their  ditty  bags 
alongside,  some  one  sewing  on  a  blue  shirt,  another 
making  a  cap,  while  a  third  was  busy  on  some  intri- 
cate embroidery  in  various  colors,  representing,  gen- 
erally, a  scarlet  ship  with  blue  guns  and  yellow  masts, 
proudly  careening  under  full  sail,  over  a  bright  green 
sea,  spotted  here  and  there  with  a  white  cap. 

Forward,  on  the  gun-deck,  the  paymaster's  steward, 
and  his  assistant,  the  Jack  of  the  Dust,  were  serving 
out  small  stores,  and  one  was  drawing  pots  and  pans, 
another  soap  and  tobacco,  while  a  slender  little  fellow 
was  struggling  with  a  No.  1  flannel  shirt,  or  a  pair  of 
satinet  trowsers  a  mile  too  big  for  him,  recalling  the 
frequent  simile  on  board  ship  of, 

"  Oh,  yes;  it  fits  him  like  a  purser's  shirt  on  a 
handspike." 

THBY  CAX'T  PUT  YOU  IN  IBOXS  FOB  THAT. 

Away  forward  on  the  gun-deck,  near  the  manger, 
and  by  the  heel  of  the  bowsprit,  sits  a  sullen  and  dis- 
contented landsman.  He  is  in  the  brig  for  punish- 
ment, with  hands  and  feet  in  irons.  A  sympathetic 
shipmate,  on  the  port  side,  finds  time,  when  the  sen- 
try is  not  looking,  to  ask: 


172  ON    A   MAN-OF-WAR. 

"What  are  you  in  for,  Bill  ? " 

"  Why,  only  for  spitting  on  deck  and  sassing  the 
captain  of  the  top," 

is  the  answer  of  the  aggrieved  aspirant  for  naval 
honors. 

"  Pshaw !  they  can't  put  you  in  irons  for  that," 
said  the  sympathizer. 

"  Oh,  they  can't,  eh  ?  "  witheringly  replied  the  pris  • 
oner;  "  well,  what  in  thunder  am  I  doing  here  ?  " 

A  PROTEST. 

Apropos  of  the  above,  the  late  Capt.  S used  to 

tell  a  story  himself,  illustrating  the  power  of  the 
commanding  officer  in  the  old  time  to  do  pretty  much 
as  he  pleased  whether  right  or  wrong.  He  was  a 
lieutenant  on  board  the  old  North  Carolina,  and  was 
somewhat  startled  one  day  by  an  order  sent  from  the 

cabin  for  Lieut.  S to  take  the  launch  and  go  to 

Sandy  Hook  for  sand.  Up  he  jumped  and  storming 
on  deck,  sent  in  his  name,  by  the  orderly,  to  see  the 
captain. 

"  Good  morning,  Mr.  S ,"  said  the  old  skipper. 

"  Ahem  !  Good  morning,  captain.  I  just  received 
an  order  from  you  to  go  for  sand,  sir,  and  thinking 
that  there  was  some  mistake,  I  came  up  to  ask — ah." 

"There's  no  mistake,  Mr.  S .  You  are  to  take 

the  launch  and  go  for  sand." 


ON   A   MAN-OF-WAR.  173 

"  But,  sir,  I  am  a  lieutenant,  sir.  It  has  always 
been  the  duty  of  a  midshipman  or  a  past-midshipman, 
sir,  to  go  for  sand." 

"  You  will  take  the  launch,  sir,  and  go  for  sand," 
coldly  replied  the  master  of  the  situation. 

"  But,  captain — a — a — I — a — -protest,  sir  ! n 

"You  may  protest,  and  be — a — as  much  as  you 
like,  Mr.  S ,  but  in  the  mean  time  go  for  sand," 

And  he  went. 

AN  EVENING   ON  BOARD  SHIP. 

The  evening,  on  board  ship  in  port,  is  much 
enjoyed  by  all  hands.  The  officers  smoke  and  gossip 
on  the  port  side  of  the  quarter-deck,  the  commander 
on  the  poop,  and  the  men  in  little  circles  forward. 
Some  play  at  dominos  by  the  light  of  the  moon,  or 
near  one  of  the  fixed  lights  of  the  ship;  others  spin 
yarns,  about  "when  they  were  in  the  old  States  frig- 
ate," or,  "  I  was  a  coming  round  the  Horn  once,  in 
'47,  I  think,"  or,  "  did  I  ever  tell  you  about  me  and 
Capt.  Wilkes,  when  we  was  on  a  exploring  expedi- 
tion to  the  South  Pole?"  etc.;  but  there  is  always 
sure  to  be  a  fair  audience  gathered  round  some  good 
singer,  who  tips  'em  a  shanty  in  good  old  sepulchral 
baritone,  the  audience  coming  in  strong  on  the 
chorus. 


174  ON    A   MAN-OF-WAB. 

That  night  upon  the  larboard 

Ben  Backstay's  ghost  appeared, 
And  from  his  open  lips 

These  awful  words  were  heered; 

These  awful  words  were  heered. 

"  With  a  chip  chow, 

Cherry  chow,  fol  de  rol  de  diddle; 
And  a  chip  chow, 
Cherry  chow,  fol  de  rol  de  day. 

** '  Now  shipmates  all  assembled, 

Take  warning  by  my  fate, 
And  when  you  take  your  liquor  down 
Be  sure  and  take  it  straight; 
Be  sure  and  take  it  straight.1 

"  With  a  chip  chow,"  etc. 

Another  heart-rending  ballad  was  in  eighty-four 
verses,  and  was  entitled, 


"THE  LOSS  OF  THE  OLD  PEACOCK. 

•'  In  '48  we  left  Old  Point 

T'explore  for  a  southern  land, 
Our  ship  ataut  from  keel  to  truck, 

And  with  proud  seamen  manned. 
We  hove  our  anchor  short  apeak 

At  the  dawning  of  the  day, 
And  by  six  bells  in  the  morning  watch 

Were  fairly  under  way. 

CHORUS— (strong). 

"  Shan  de  loo  ral  loo  ral  li  do, 

Shan  de  loo  ral  lay. 
Shan  de  loo  ral  loo  ral  li  do, 
Shan  de  loo  ral  to— a— a— y,"  etc. 

At  8.45  the  drum  and  fife  begin  and  play  various 
tunes,  until  9  P.  M.,  when  the  officer  gives  the  order, 
"Roll  off." 


OJT   A   MAN-OF-WAR.  175 

At  the  third  roll,  the  bell  strikes  two,  the  whistles 
"  pipe  down,"  and  all  hands  turn  in. 

As  soon  as  the  whistles  cease,  the  two  cornets  play 
a  duet — "Home,  Sweet  Home,"  or  some  pretty  old 
ballad,  which  sounds  inexpressibly  beautiful  coming 
over  the  water  on  a  calm  summer  night.  Later  the 
officers  seek  their  rooms,  and  all  is  quiet,  save  the 
tramp  of  the  restless  watchers  to  and  fro. 

THE  PRESIDENT'S  BALL. 

"  A  man  in  all  the  world's  new  fashion  plants  J. 
"Ihat  hath  a  mint  of  phrases  in  his  brain." 

The  President  of  the  Republic  of  Chili  had  sent 
an  urgent  invitation  for  all  the  naval  officers  of  the 
ships  of  the  various  nationalities  lying  in  the  bay  of 
Valparaiso,  to  come  to  the  president's  ball  at  Santi- 
ago, the  capital,  adding  that  transportation  had  been 
furnished  and  a  special  train  would  convey  us  to  San- 
tiago, 150  miles  distant.  Accordingly,  about  a  dozen 
of  us,  French,  English  and  American,  presented  our- 
selves, en  grande  tenue,  cocked  hat,  sword,  epaulette 
and  swallow  tail,  at  the  ball-room.  Strange  as  it  may 
appear,  the  Englishman  who  had  been  two  years  on 
the  coast,  and  "  could  never  pick  up  the  lingo  you 
know,"  spoke  English;  the  three  Frenchmen  spoke 
good  French,  although  there  was  one  of  them  that 
looked  so  like  an  American  that  I  was  constantly 


176  ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR. 

bewildering  him,  by  bantering  him  in  English,  of 
which  he  understood  not  one  word,  to  speak  English. 

Now,  I  would  say, 

"  Why  don't  you  talk.  You're  a  Yankee,  you  know 
you  are,  and  can  talk  just  as  well  as  I  can;  that's  too 
thin,  you  are  no  Frenchman," 

and  he  would  smile  and  show  his  white  teeth,  and 
shrug  his  shoulders,  not  having  a  glimmering,  even, 
of  what  I  said.  The  Americans  spoke  pure  Ameri- 
can, with  occasional  dashes  of  French,  not  always 
apropos,  but  good  in  their  way,  and  helping  to  dis- 
guise their  meaning  better  than  their  English  would. 
Well,  we  loafed  around  the  magnificent  ball-room  a 
few  times,  admiring  from  afar  the  many  richly  dressed 
brunettes,  hoping  that  we  might  be  introduced  to 
them.  The  band  was  playing  the  most  delightful 
waltz,  and  the  chorus  of  ladies,  singing  with  the 
orchestra,  was  simply  magnificent  (these  Chilenas  are 
very  fine  musicians),  and  we  knew  that  we  could 
waltz  readily  in  any  language. 

Well,  as  I  remarked, 

WE    LOUNGED    BOUND    THE    HALL, 

dragging  our  swords  and  holding  our  cocked  hats  on 
our  arms,  comparing  notes  on  each  round,  and  ad- 
journing to  the  supper  room  at  intervals,  where  an 
elegant  supper  was  spread  and  champagne  flowed 


ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR.  177 

freely,  until  I  thought  I  should  have  dropped.  The 
Englishmen  looked  red  and  mad,  the  Frenchmen  in- 
different, and  the  Americans  disgusted.  I  went  up 
to  a  fellow  in  "  sojer  "  clothes,  that  I  took  to  be  one 
of  the  committee,  and  conversed  with  him  on  the 
subject  animatedly  in  French,  English,  American  and 
Spanish,  uniting  them  all  impartially  in  the  same  sen- 
tence, and  emphasizing  the  whole  with  gestures  in  all 
the  living  and  dead  tongues,  the  little  band  of  mari- 
ners from  Valparaiso  anxiously  watching  the  result. 
I  finished  a  somewhat  incoherent  appeal  as  follows: 

"  Look  here,  Senor,  ne  pouvez  vous  pas,  present  me 
to  some  of  these  senoritas  to  dansez,  you  know.  Je 
suis  American  naval  officer,  and  I  don't  connais  any 
of  the  people,  et  je  desire  to  dance,  and  so  do  the 
other  fellows." 

Here  the  other  fellows  nodded  vigorously  and  said : 

"  Si,  si." 

Well,  the  committeeman  said  suivez  moi,  and  I  told 
the  other  fellows  he  says  suivez  moi,  and  if  he  intro- 
duces me  to  any  of  'em  Til  fix  you  fellows  all  right. 

I  think 

I  FOLLOWED  THAT  VILLAIN 

about  an  hour,  round  and  round  the  hall;  every  now 
and  then  I  would  pull  his  sleeve  and  say, 

"  Senor,  there's  a  nice-looking  girl,  introduce  me  to 
her,"  and  he  would  replv, 


178  ON   A   MAN-OF-WAB. 

"  Espere  un  poco," 

which,  in  the  language  of  the  modern  Castilian 
means,  hope  a  little,  or,  more  freely  translated,  hold 
on.  As  we  wearily  traversed  the  immense  hall,  I 
would  encounter  now  and  then  my  American  French- 
man, and  would  accost  him  with, 

"  JEst  ce  que  vous  avez  dans'e  encore  mon  garcon  f  " 

"Pas  encore" 

he  would  cheerfully  reply,  and  go  out  and  take  a 
drink,  while  I  was  obliged  to  follow  my  leader  and 
couldn't  go  with  him. 

Just  then  I  caught  sight  of  Charley  C ,  madly 

galloping  around  with  a  little  girl,  and  I  angrily 
deserted  my  guide  and  rejoined  my  friends.  One  of 
our  officers  had  found  a  little  English  boy,  he  said, 
and  he  was  carrying  on  quite  a  conversation  with 
him;  at  least,  he  thought  he  was,  but  I  ascertained 
that  the  little  English  boy  spoke  nothing  but  Spanish. 

Well,  we  went  home,  to  the  hotel,  about  3  A.  M., 

none  of  us  having  danced  at  all  except  Charley  C , 

who  had  one  gallop,  and  who  informed  us  confiden- 
tially that  he  thought  it  wasn't  likely  that  he  should 
ever  get  her  to  dance  another  with  him.  After 
spending  the  next  day  in  Santiago,  we  started  down 
to  the  depot  to  take  the  train  for  Valparaiso. 


ON    A   MAN-OF-WAR.  170 

SOME   SAILOR   SPANISH. 

I  walked  up  to  the  ticket  office,  and  throwing  down  a 
twenty-dollar  gold  piece  asked  for  four  tickets;  the 
clerk  pushed  back  the  coin,  with  some  remark  in 
Spanish,  and  I  endeavored  to  explain  to  him  all  about 
it,  you  know. 

In  vain  I  said  this  is  American  gold,  and  is  worth 
twenty-one  dollars  and  sixty  cents,  Chileno  money; 
he  pushed  it  back,  saying, 

"No  entiendo  Ingles,  Seilor,  y  no  se  oro  Ameri- 
cano" 
so  the  paymaster  pushed  me  one  side,  saying, 

"Let me  tell  him." 

Fixing  his  eagle  eye  firmly  on  the  little  Dago,  he 
commenced: 

"  Look  here,  Sefior,  nous  sommes  officiates  Ameri- 
cana, and  we've  come  up  to  the  president's  ball,  yoij 
know.  El  baUo  del  Presidents,  you  see;  and  este  oro, 
vale  mas  que  el  otro  ;  do  you  sabe  ?  " 

The  Chileno  smiled  blandly  upon  the  enthusiastic- 
linguist,  and  for  the  twenty-third  time  repeated 
calmlv: 

"No  entiendo  Ingles,  Senor!"  (I  don't  under- 
stand English,  sir.) 

"Now,  get  out  of  the  way  you  fellows,"  said 
Charley,  "  and  let  me  tell  him.'* 


180  ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR. 

Charley  had  made  a  cruise  in  the  Mediterranean, 
and  could  speak  any  language/ 

Planting  himself  squarely  before  the  small  window, 
he  brought  his  port  eye  to  bear  on  the  placid  counte- 
nance of  the  undisturbed  official  and  said  sternly, 

"HablaEspanolf" 

"  Si"  promptly  answered  the  Chileno. 

"  Parlez  vous  Franpais,  bueno  ?  "  somewhat  inco- 
herently pursued  Charley,  following  up  his  advantage. 

"  Jfira,  Senor"  and  thinking  that  Hfira  sounded 
well  he  said  it  again. 

"  Nosotros  sommes  Americanus  et  we  come  up  to 
the  president's  ball,  and  that  oro  is  worth  more  than 
your  old  Dago  money  by  a  dollar  and  sixty  cents, 
and  if  you  don't  choose  to  take  that  money  we'll  ride 
down  in  your  derned  old  wagon  for  nothing." 

"No  entiendo  Ingles"  replied  the  imperturbable 
clerk,  and  our  stock  of  language  was  exhausted. 

Fortunately  a  gentleman,  better  posted  in  the  value 
of  American  gold,  gave  us  four  Chileno  five-dollar 
pieces  for  a  twenty,  and  we  rode  down  to  Valparaiso 
in  triumph. 


ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR.  181 


LETTER  XVIH. 

"  Some  pick  out  bullets  from  the  vessel's  side, 
Some  drive  old  oakum  through  each  seam  and  rift." 

CAPTURING    A  DESERTER  ON    BOARD    A  PERUVIAN   MAN- 

OF-WAB THE    LINGUISTIC     DIFFICULTIES     OF     THE 

PERUVIAN    NAVT BILLY'S    $800  TEMPERANCE    LEC- 
TURE  FOREIGN     NOBLEMEN     AS     CADETS     AT    THE 

UNITED     STATES     NAVAL     ACADEMY AS      COOL     AS 

"  MIDSHIPMAN  EASY  " WHAT  A  SECRETARY  OF  THE 

NAVY    KNEW    ABOUT    SLOOPS. 

You  remember  reading  a  short  time  ago,  an  account 
of  the  engagement  of  two  or  three  English  men-of- 
war  with  the  Peruvian  iron-clad  Huascar,  in  which 
the  latter  vessel  appeared  to  considerable  advantage. 

AFTER    A    DESERTER. 

I  went  on  board  the  Huascar  some  years  ago,  while 
attached  to  a  ship  in  the  harbor  of  Callao,  to  look  for 
a  deserter.  The  officer  of  the  deck,  a  trim  little 
Peruvian,  with  a  very  small  waist,  and  very  pegtop 
trousers,  received  me  very  cordially  and  seemed  eager 
to  oblige  me  in  finding  my  man. 

"  Yon  Schmidt  ?  "  he  repeated  after  me. 

"  No  le  conozco  "  (I  don't  know  him). 

I  insinuated  that  he  probably  called  himself  now 


182  ON    A   MAN-OF-WAK. 

Lopez  de  Vega,  or  Antonio  Martinez  Santo  Campo 
instead  of  John  Smith.  Struck  with  the  idea,  he 
turned  to  the  boatswain's  mate,  an  old  English  man- 
of-war's  man  apparently,  and  addressing  him  in 
Spanish,  as  Patron,  he  volubly  gave  directions  that 
Antonio  Gar9ia  be  sent  to  the  mast.  The  old  fellow 
stared  at  him,  and  then  walked  across  the  deck  to  a 
genuine  Dago,  and  asked  in  an  under-tone, 

"  What  in  thunder  did  he  say  ?  " 

The  answer  must  have  been  intelligible,  for  I  soon 
heard  his  pipe  and  the  cry, 

"  Anto-onio  Garcy,  do  you  hear  there  Garcy,  you're 
wanted  aft." 

I  laughed  heartily  at  the  idea  of  trying  to  run  an 
American  man-of-war,  where  the  officers  of  the  deck, 
and  the  boatswain's  mate,  spoke  an  entirely  different 
language;  it  seemed  to  work  well,  however,  for  Garcy 
turned  out  to  be  plain  Smith,  and  I  bore  him  off  in 
triumph. 

RUNNING    A    SHIP    IN    SEVERAL   LANGUAGES. 

On  another  occasion  the  Independencia  got  under 
weigh  and  passed  out  near  us.  The  anchor  was  up  to 
the  hawse-hole,  and  the  officer  of  the  deck,  wishing  to 
know  if  the  cat-fall  was  hooked  (I  don't  know  what 
they  call  it  in  Spanish),  called  out, 

"  Esta  listed  listo,  Senor  f  "  (Are  you  ready,  sir  ?) 
Hack  came  the  answer,  in  pure  Anglo-Saxon, 


OH   A   MAN-OF-WAR.  183 

"All  ready  with  the  cat,  sir," 

and  our  amusement  was  at  a  climax,  when  the  man 
in  the  chains,  heaving  the  lead,  chanted  out, 

"And  a  quar-r-ter  five-e." 

The  Peruvians  are  poor  sailors,  and  not  original,  so 
they  employ  English,  -American  and  German  experts, 
for  continual  examples  to  their  mixed  and  otherwise 
useless  crews. 

GOOD   TKIDAT   AT   CAIXAO. 

One  day  in  the  harbor — I  suppose  it  must  have  been 
Good  Friday — there  was  considerable  of  a  commotion 
in  the  squadron  of  French  and  Peruvian  men-of-war 
lying  near  us.  At  12  o'clock  noon  the  yards  were 
cockbilled,  and  the  braces  slackened  up,  making  the 
ships  look  as  untidy  and  desolate  as  possible,  and  at 
the  first  gun,  out  went  an  effigy  at  the  fore  yard-arm 
of  the  flag-ship,  swinging  back  and  forth  with  the  send 
it  got  from  the  ship's  side. 

I  was  puzzled  to  know  the  meaning  of  the  perform- 
ance, until  one  of  the  quartermasters  volunteered  the 
remark  that  "  he  guessed  they  were  hanging  Judas 
Iscariot."  And  so  it  proved,  and  old  Judas  hung 
there  until  sunset,  when  down  he  came,  with  the 
colors,  and  the  yards  being  squared  and  gear  hauled 
taut,  the  ships  resumed  their  ordinary  trim  appear- 


184:  ON    A    MAX-OF-WAR. 

BUYING   A   DIAMOND. 

One  of  our  gun-boats  visited  Rio  on  her  way  out  to 
join  the  Pacific  squadron,  and  lay  there  for  several 
days.  One  day  one  of  the  officers,  a  classmate  of 
mine,  happened  on  shore,  and  having  been  at  sea  a 
good  while,  took  a  drink  or  two  to  make  up  for  lost 
time.  As  he  walked  down  the  street,  opposite  a  large 
jewelry  store,  he  was  hailed  by  the  paymaster  and 
doctor  to  come  over  and  buy  or  look  at  some  dia- 
monds. Billy  muttered  something  about  not  wanting 
any  diamonds  just  then,  but  good-naturedly  joined 
them.  They  selected  two  modest  diamonds,  had 
them  marked  and  called  to  Billy  to  know  how  he 
liked  them.  He  looked  contemptuously  at  the  little 
brilliants,  and  majestically  called  on  the  merchant  for 
some  diamonds.  None  of  your  little  trash,  but  some 
of  your  big  diamonds,  and  had  marked  for  him  a  gem 
as  big  as  a  three-cent  piece. 

The  next  day  one  of  the  officers  said: 

"  Billy,  when  are  you  going  ashore  after  your  dia- 
mond ?  " 

"My  what?" 

"  Why  the  diamond  you  bought  yesterday.  Don't 
you  know  that  you  bought  a  diamond  yesterday  as 
big  as  a  dead-light,  and  had  it  marked  for  you  ?  " 

Well,  Billy  interviewed  the  paymaster,  drew, 
begged  and  borrowed  all  the  money  he  could,  and 


ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR.  185 

with  a  bag  full  of  English  sovereigns  wended  his 
way  to  a  broker's  office.  Fortunately  for  him  English 
gold  was  at  a  high  premium,  and  on  account  of  the 
Paraguayan  war,  milreis  were  at  a  discount,  so  he 
made  the  exchange,  bought  the  diamond  for  about 
$800  in  gold,  and  with  a  sorrowful  heart  came  on 
board  again,  knowing  that  circumstances  over  which 
he  had  no  control,  would  materially  interfere  with 
his  going  on  shore  any  more  for  the  next  four  months. 
He  sent  the  diamond  home,  however,  and  about  a 
year  after  sold  it  for  some  $1,500.  Notwithstanding, 
he  says  it  was  the  most  powerful  temperance  lecture 
he  ever  experienced. 

NO    BEVERENCE    FOB   DTTCAL   BANK. 

For  the  last  ten  or  twelve  years,  there  have  been 
several  foreign  youths  at  the  U.  S.  Naval  Academy, 
being  educated  in  all  the  branches  taught  there. 

There  are  now  several  Japanese  cadets  there,  and 
some  twelve  years  ago  the  Due  de  Penthievre,  son  of 
the  Prince  de  Joinville,  graduated  from  the  Academy. 
It  is  very  creditable  to  our  young  country  that  the 
children  of  the  old  should  be  sent  to  us  for  instruc- 
tion and  training,  and  the  result  has  been  so  good 
that  it  is  probable  that  our  schools  will  always  have 
some  such  representative  under  instruction. 

The  Due  was  called  Pierre  d'Orleans  at  the  Acad- 


186  ON   A   MAN-OF-WAR. 

emy,  and  the  midshipmen,  with  the  true  American 
reverence  for  rank,  called  him  "  Pete." 

He  was  smart,  quick,  and  a  general  favorite,  and 
you  may  suppose  that  he  could  not  have  talked  much 
of  the  blue  blood  of  the  Bourbons,  and  his  long  line 
of  ancestry,  and  be  popular. 

He  went  out  as  navigator  of  one  of  the  school 
ships  on  their  summer  cruise,  and,  one  day  was  bother- 
ing a  lieutenant  who  was  sitting  writing  in  his  state- 
room, by  asking  questions,  pulling  his  hair,  or  some- 
thing of  the  kind,  until  the  lieutenant  turned  round 
and  said  deferentially, 

"  Oh,  go  away,  King  !  Feet  (he  has  tremendous 
feet),  take  his  Royal  Highness  away.  Look  here, 
Penthy,  if  you  don't  get  out  of  this  I'll  put  a  bigger 
head  on  you  than  you  have  got  now." 

The  Due  rose  to  the  rank  of  lieutenant,  I  think, 
then  resigned,  and,  if  I  am  not  mistaken,  was  made 
admiral  of  the  Brazilian  navy. 

I  have  heard  frequently  of  the  lavish  hospitality 
he  invariably  shows  to  his  old  classmates  whenever 
he  encounters  them. 

0.  WANTS  TO   GO   TOO. 

A  number  of  years  ago  a  couple  of  midshipmen 
were  sitting  in  the  steerage  of  one  of  our  sloops-of- 
war;  one,  meditating  with  his  heels  against  the  door 


OS  A   MAX-OF-WAR.  187 

of  his  locker,  the  other,  concocting  a  formidable  let- 
ter to  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy. 

"  What  are  you  writing,  Jimmy  ?"  said  the  first. 

"  Writing  for  leave  of  absence  for  two  weeks,"  was 
the  reply. 

"Tell  'em  that  I  want  to  go,  too,  Trffl  you?" 

"  All  right,"  said  Midshipman  Easy,  quietly  adding 
a  P.  S.: 

"  C.  says  that  he  wants  to  go  too." 

In  a  few  days  back  came  a  letter  from  the  Depart- 
ment for  the  enterprising  midshipman,  formally  grant- 
ing him  two  weeks'  leave  of  absence  agreeably  to  his 
request  of  the  15th  instant,  and  adding, 

"If  midshipman  C.  desires  leave  of  absence,  the 
Department  will  be  pleased  to  grant  it,  if  he  will  make 
the  application  in  proper  form." 

The  midshipman  has  ever  since  been  known  by  the 
sobriquet  of  w  C.  who  wants  to  go  too." 

•LOOPS   AXD    OAKUM. 

A  number  of  years  ago,  the  then  Secretary  of  the 
Navy  was  induced  by  the  Advisory  Board  of  Xaval 
Officers  to  ask  Congress  for  authority  to  build  six 
sloops-of-war.  The  Secretary,  a  very  able  lawyer. 
but  more  conversant  with  the  single-masted  North 
River  sloops  than  with  men-of-war  in  general,  was 
very  much  astonished  when  the  first  of  the  six  sloops- 
of-war  was  put  in  commission. 


188  ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR. 

Upon  seeing  a  full-rigged,  three-masted  ship,  costing 
some  $750,000,  instead  of  the  sloop  his  imagination 
had  pictured,  he  turned  indignantly  to  the  officers  in 
attendance  and  said: 

"  Gentlemen,  you  have  deceived  me,  these  are  not 
sloops,  these  are  ships." 

There  is  another,  a  rumor  only,  that  a  high  official, 
on  being  told  that  oakum  (old  rope  pulled  apart  for 
calking  seams)  was  very  scarce,  said  innocently: 

"Why,  didn't  they  plant  as  much  as  usual  last 
vear?" 


ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR.  189 


LETTER 


BULL-FIGHT  AT  LIMA,  PERU  -  WHAT  A  BULL-RING  IS 
LIKE  -  THE  BULL  MAKES  THE  ATTACK  -  THE  MATA- 
DOR AND  HIS  SWORD  -  BULL  NO.  1  DIES  GAME  -  A 
PLUCKY  LITTLE  BULL  MAKES  MATTERS  LIVELY  - 
"THE  KING  OF  THE  PROTESTANTS"  —  TRUTHS 
DOUBTED  AND  MUNCHAUSENISMS  BELIEVED. 

The  Peruvian  Fourth  of  July  comes  on  the  28th, 
I  believe,  and  I  went  up  to  Lima  on  that  day  to  see 
a  bull-fight. 

THE    BULL-RING 

was  circular,  about  500  feet  in  diameter,  having  a 
curved  row  of  seats  of  eight  or  ten  tiers,  like  a  circus, 
extending  round  the  outer  rim,  a  portion  being  divided 
off  into  private  boxes.  I  was  fortunate  enough  to  be 
invited  to  accompany  a  party  of  young  and  old  ladies, 
and  we  had  a  box.  There  was  seating  capacity  for 
about  10,000  people,  I  should  say,  with  many  stand- 
ing up.  A  fine  band  played  between  the  acts,  and 
the  scene  was  a  very  exciting  one. 

Shortly  after  we  took  our  seats  the  gates  opened 
and  some  half  a  dozen  horsemen,  cabatteros,  rode  into 
the  inclosure  and  round  the  ring.  The  horses  were 
very  indifferent-looking  ones,  but  proved  to  be  quick 


190  ON   A   MAN-OF-WAR. 

enough  to  keep  out  of  the  way.  A  large  number, 
say  fifteen  capadores,  were  moving  about  the  ring 
clad  in  fancy  Spanish  dress,  doublet  and  hose,  with 
scarlet-lined  cloaks  or  capes. 

Suddenly,  amid  a  flourish  of  trumpets,  the  cattle 
gate  opened  and 

IN"   BOUNDED    A   BULL 

with  long  sharp  horns.  He  seemed  startled  and  some- 
what frightened  at  first,  but,  recovering  himself,  he 
started  after  a  horseman,  who  had  backed  his  horse 
into  position,  and  furiously  chased  him  round  the 
ring.  The  horse  seemed  to  canter  or  leap  with  the 
bull,  so  that  though  his  horn  was  almost  against  the 
flank  of  the  horse,  he  couldn't  quite  reach  him. 

Soon  the  capadores  came  round,  and  flaunting  their 
gayly  colored  capes  drew  off  the  bull's  attention  by 
cries  of 

"  Toro  !  ah,  Toro  f  mal  Toro  !  " 

He  would  stand  still  and  hesitate,  and  finally  charge 
the  nearest  one,  for,  say  fifty  feet,  when  another 
would  draw  him  off,  and  so  on  until  he  was  almost 
exhausted.  All  this  time  they  were  firing  off  sky- 
rockets and  fire-works,  although  it  was  broad  day- 
light. Now  my  attention  was  called  to  a  couple  of 
gayly  dressed  men  carrying  rods  called 


ON   A   MAN-OF-WAR.  191 

BANDERILLOS, 

with  barbed-pointed  ends,  the  rods  being  dressed 
with  cut  paper.  One  of  these,  holding  a  dart  in  each 
hand,  followed  the  bull,  taunting  him  to  turn  on  him. 
Suddenly  the  bull  turned  short  round  and  charged 
him;  just  as  it  seemed  as  if  the  lowered  horns  would 
catch  him,  he  quickly  planted  both  banderittos  into 
the  neck  of  the  bull  and  darted  to  one  side;  the  cut 
papers  strung  out  twenty  feet  in  length ;  the  bull 
pawed  and  tried  to  shake  out  the  darts,  but  the  hooks 
stuck  securely,  and  held  them  for  a  long  time.  Some- 
times the  darts  have  explosives  in  them,  and  burst 
after  a  while,  driving  the  poor  animal  almost  mad. 
And  now  the  other  banderillero  plants  his  two  darts 
successfully  in  the  bull's  neck  and  he  is  almost  beside 
himself.  By  this  time 

THE  CHEERFUL   AUDIENCE    HAS  GROWN  BLOODTHIRSTY, 

and  a  cry  goes  up, 

"  El  Matador,  El  Matador!"  (the  slayer), 
and  a  fine-looking  fellow  sprang  forward,  carrying  a 
stout  sword,  about  six  feet  in  length,  and  a  small  red 
cape.  He  approached  the  bull,  and  after  several 
attempts,  induced  the  maddened  animal  to  attack 
him,  as  he  had  done  the  banderilleros.  Finally,  just 
as  the  lowered  head  was  close  under  his  hand,  he 
struck  his  sword  back  of  the  fore  shoulder  almost  to 
the  hilt,  amid  the  cheers  of  the  assembly. 


192  ON  A  MAN-OF-WAR. 

THE  POOR  BULL  STAGGERED, 

vomiting  blood — a  few  steps  and  fell,  when  a  man 
ran  quickly  up  and  with  a  dagger  severed  the  spinal 
cord  at  the  neck,  and  bull  No.  1  was  dead. 

While  the  matador  advanced  to  the  box  of  the 
Municipalidad  (the  common  council),  to  receive  a  roll 
of  silver  soles  (dollars),  a  team  of  six  mules  dashed 
in  gayly  caparisoned;  the  head  of  the  bull  was  lifted 
on  a  low,  two-wheel  truck,  chained,  and,  amid  a  burst 
of  quick  music  from  the  band,  away  they  dashed, 
making  a  circuit  of  the  ring  at  a  gallop,  and  dragged 
the  bull  from  the  ring.  I  should  have  said  that  the 
next  bull  had  been  standing  in  a  small,  close  pen,  with 
a  kindly  dago  overhead,  whose  business  it  was  to  keep 
pricking  him  with  a  lance,  to  have  him  in  trim  when 
wanted. 

Again  the  band  played,  again  the  gates  opened, 
and 

IN   DASHED    A    SECOND    BULL, 

his  gay  blanket,  not  strapped  on,  but  pinned  to  the 
hide  at  the  four  corners  with  fish-hooks  so  it  wouldn't 
come  off;  he  rushed  swiftly  to  the  center  of  the 
bull-ring,  where  a  figure  of  a  man  turning  a  lathe 
run  by  fire-works  was  in  operation  ;  catching  the 
figure  on  his  horns  he  threw  it  high  in  the  air  as  it 
exploded,  and  then  trampled  it  under  his  feet  amid  a 
cloud  of  dust  and  burning  powder. 


OX    A   MAX-OF-WAR.  193 

The  capadores  approached  him  carefully,  but  he 
would  not  attack  them  beyond  making  a  short  ran  of 
a  few  steps;  the  audience  murmured, 

"  Mai  toro  no  siroe,  no  vale  nada," 
and  the  capadores  renewed  their  efforts,  one  catching 
the  bull  by  the  tail,  but  in  rain;  he  wouldn't  fight, 
and  several  other  bulls  being  let  in,  the   herd  was 
driven  ignominiously  out  by  one  man  with  a  whip. 

OXCE   MORE    A   BURST   OF   MUSIC,      " 

and  another  bull,  a  little  fellow,  came  bounding  in; 
he  was  as  quick  as  lightning,  and  I  tell  you  the  capa- 
dores scattered;  he  possessed  the  disagreeable  quality 
of  sticking  to  one  man  at  a  time,  in  spite  of  the 
efforts  of  the  others  to  draw  him  off.  One  fellow, 
closely  pursued,  could  not  reach  one  of  the  slips,  and 
sprang  up  the  wall  of  the  ring,  clambering  into  one 
of  the  boxes, 

WITH   THE   BULL'S   LOXG   SHARP   HORN 

just  missing  him  by  about  an  inch.  As  for  me,  1 
hoped  that  the  bull  would  catch  him;  my  sympathies 
were  entirely  with  the  bulL  A  capadore  ran  up  on 
one  side,  and  the  bull  started  for  him,  and  he  had 
just  time  to  reach  one  of  the  little  barricades  built 
up  at  intervals  round  the  edge  of  the  ring,  with  just 
room  for  a  man  to  pass  behind.  Here  he  supposed 
himself  safe,  but  the  little  bull  followed  him  in,  and 


194  ON    A    MAX-OF-WAB. 

stuck  when  about  one-third  of  the  way  in,  the  man 
rolling  out  at  the  other  side  scared  half  to  death. 

"Buen,  torof" 

the  people  shouted  and  laughed,  but  only  for  a  few 
minutes.  "Kill  him,"  was  soon  the  cry,  and  the 
plucky  little  bull  was  murdered,  as  were  his  prede- 


SIX   BULLS    WERE    KILLED 

in  two  hours,  and  then  a  man  came  in  on  the  bull's 
back,  having  a  strap  round  the  body  of  the  bull  to 
hold  on  to.  He  rode  the  animal  round  where  the  bull 
chose  to  go,  and,  watching  his  opportunity,  slid 
off  and  escaped  up  the  box  fronts.  For  this  feat  the 
bull  became  his  property,  and  was  driven  out  alive. 

I  noticed  that  the  name  of  one  of  the  young  ladies 
in  our  box  was 

AGBIPPINA, 

and  I  remarked  to  her  mother  that  it  was  a  Bible 
name. 

"  Bible,  que  es  eso  f  "     (What  is  that  ?) 

I  said,  "  the  Bible  is  our  holy  book." 

"Oh!  and  she  is  in  that,  eh?" 

"Yes,  I  am  a  Protestant.  You  know  Agrippa 
was  king  of  the  a — a —  (what  in  thunder  is  Jews  ? 
John,  do  you  know  what  Jews  is  in  Spanish  ?)  King 
of  the 


ON   A   MAN-OF-WAR.  195 

"  De  los  Protestantes  f  "  (Of  the  Protestants)  said 
the  old  lady,  anxious  to  help  me  out. 

"  Esto  es  muy  curioso  /  mira,  Agrippina,  su  nom- 
bre  es  la  misma  del  Rey  de  los  Protestantes^  (That 
is  very  curious;  look,  Agrippina,  your  name  is  the 
same  as  the  king  of  the  Protestants.) 

Fortunately  the  bull  at  this  moment  almost  suc- 
ceeded in  ripping  up  a  horse  and  rider,  and  the  atten- 
tion of  the  dear  girls  was  attracted  to  the  ring. 

GEOGRAPHICAL   AND  CLIMATOLOGICAL    INFORMATION. 

One  girl  finally  asked  me: 

"You  live  in  New  York  ?  " 

"  No,  about  800  miles  west  of  New  York." 

"Are  there  cities  so  far  from  New  York?" 

"  Oh,  yes!  I  live  near  a  lake  of  fresh  water  bigger 
than  the  whole  state  of  Peru." 

"Fresh  water!  Oh,  Senor  !  there  is  no  such  thing  ; 
and  is  the  health  good  there  ?  " 

"Good!  why  they  had  to  kill  a  man  out  there  the 
other  day  to  start  a  grave-yard." 

"  Nombre  de  Dios  !  Mira,  Agrippina,  necessitaba 
matar  a  un  hombre  para  prindpiar  tin  lugar  de  en- 
terremiento"  (Look,  Agrippina!  they  had  to  kill  a 
man  to  commence  a  place  of  interment.) 

When  I  told  them  of  the  vast  prairies  covered 
with  grass,  of  the  groves  of  trees,  of  the  thunder- 


196  ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR. 

storms,  of  the  rain,  and  of  the  flashes  of  lightning, 
they  looked  at  me  with  surprise  that  I  should  expect 
them  to  believe  such  nonsense.  They  never  saw 
green  things  grow  without  patient  watering  and 
attention,  and  as  for  rain,  why  should  they  believe 
it  ?  they  never  had  seen  it  rain  in  Peru. 


OX    A   MAN-OF-WAB.  197 


LETTER  XX. 

"  With  roomy  decks,  her  guns  of  mighty  strength. 
Deep  is  her  draught,  and  warlike  is  her  length." 

A   MIDSHIPMAN'S   EXPERIENCE   ON   BOARD   THE   BRIG 

PERRY CHASE  AND  CAPTURE  OF  THE  PRIVATEER 

SAVANNAH A  CHOICE  OF  LIQUORS. 

After  graduating  from  the  Xaval  Academy,  I  was 
ordered  in  June,  1861.  for  duty  on  board 

THE  BRIG    PERRY, 

then  fitting  out  from  the  New  York  Xavy  Yard. 

Being  a  midshipman  I  was  only  entitled  to  quarters 
in  the  steerage,  but  the  partition  having  been  pulled 
down,  I  was  perforce  in  the  ward-room,  swinging  in 
a  hammock  from  whence  I  was  turned  out  at  six  bells 
(7  A.  M.),  to  make  room  to  set  the  ward-room  break- 
fast table.  The  other  officers  slept  in  bunks  around 
the  ward-room,  with  lockers  for  their  clothes  in  front 
or  inboard  of  them,  and  these  lockers  furnished  a 
permanent  seat  for  them  at  the  mess  table.  The 
captain  had  a  small  trunk  cabin,  a  little  higher  and 
abaft  burs,  to  which  entrance  was  gained  from  the 
quarter-deck  by  a  flight  of  three  steps  down.  You 
could  not  swing  a  kitten  by  the  tail  in  either  cabin 
or  ward-room,  but  possibly  they  didn't  want  any  kit- 


198  ON   A   MAN-OF-WAR. 

tens  slung,  and  we  got  used  to  the  small  quarters 
after  a  while. 

At  the  time,  I  thought  the  cabin  magnificent,  and 
two  years  afterward,  when  I  might  have  had  com- 
mand of  the  Perry,  I  sneered  contemptuously  at  the 
small  quarters  as  they  then  appeared. 

The  lieutenant  commanding  the  Perry  died  a  few 
years  ago  a  rear  admiral ;  the  executive  officer,  also  a 
lieutenant,  is  now  a  commodore,  the  navigator  a  com- 
mander, and  I,  well,  a  historian. 

ASTONISHING   A   CAPTAIN. 

•  There  was  always  more  or  less  feeling  shown  by 
the  older  officers  against  graduates  of  the  Naval 
Academy,  and  the  commanding  officer  took  it  for 
granted  that  I  did  not  know  much  of  anything,  so 
for  the  first  two  weeks  I  did  nothing  but  drill  the 
men  at  small  arms,  then  single  sticks,  and  exercise 
my  navigation  with  the  navigator,  taking  sights  and 
working  the  position  of  the  ship. 

From  time  to  time  I  astonished  the  captain  by 
exhibiting  a  knowledge  of  different  subjects  con- 
nected with  the  service,  provoking  the  somewhat 
satirical  question: 

"  Why,  do  they  teach  you  that  at  the  Naval  Acad- 
emy ?  " 

I  remember  on  one  occasion  that  he  was  really  aston- 


ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR.  199 

ished  because  I  worked  out  the  position  of  the  ship 
one  day,  and  reported  it  to  him,  the  navigator  being 
sick,  and  how  pleased  he  was,  because  the  position, 
as  found  by  the  navigator  at  4  p.  M.  of  the  same  day 
differed  from  mine  some  thirty  miles,  and  he  attrib- 
uted the  error  to  me,  and  was  correspondingly  dis- 
gusted when  the  navigator  generously  claimed  the 
mistake  as  his  own. 

NAVIGATION. 

"  Rude  as  their  ships  was  navigation  then, 
No  useful  compass  or  meridian  known: 
Coasting,  they  kept  the  land  within  their  ken, 
And  knew  no  north  but  when  the  pole-star  shone." 

By  navigation  on  board  a  man-of-war,  is  meant  not 
the  conduct  of  the  ship  as  regards  the  working  of 
the  ship  itself,  its  evolutions  and  internal  discipline, 
but  simply  the  ascertaining  correctly  the  exact  posi- 
tion of  the  ship  at  any  time  upon  the  chart  or  map. 

The  latitude  is  ascertained  usually  by  observations 
of  the  sun  at  high  noon,  though  it  may  be  obtained 
by  observation  of  the  moon  and  stars. 

If  the  north  star  was  exactly  at  the  North  Pole, 
instead  of  revolving  a  degree  and  a  half  from  it,  you 
could  find  the  latitude  simply  by  measuring  its  alti- 
tude, or  height  above  the  horizon;  indeed,  if  you  can 
see  the  north  star,  you  can  form  a  pretty  tolerable 
guess  how  many  degrees  high  it  is,  and  such  number 
of  degrees  will  be  about  the  latitude. 


200  ON    A    MAN-oK- WAR. 

As  a  degree  is  sixty  miles,  you  can  readily  see  that 
it  will  not  do  to  guess  at  it  if  the  safety  of  a  valu- 
able ship,  freighted  with  valuable  lives,  depends  upon 
your  accuracy.  Knowing  the  latitude,  we  can  find 
the  longitude  by  an  observation  of  the  sun,  moon  or 
stars,  if  we  are  provided  with  a  clock  or  chronometer 
showing  Greenwich  time. 

At  the  risk  of  being  tedious,  I  will  explain  a  little 
the  principle  of 

A   TIME    SIGHT. 

The  object  is  to  find  the  time  of  day  to  a  second. 
If  we  know  that,  we  compare  it  with  our  Greenwich 
time,  and  the  difference  is  our  longitude.  If  our 
time  is  five  hours  earlier  than  the  Greenwich  clock 
shows,  of  course,  we  are  five  hours  west  of  Green- 
wich, or  five-twenty-fourths  of  360  degrees,  which  is 
75  degrees  west  longitude.  In  order  to  find  the  local 
time,  the  navigator  goes  on  deck  at  seven  bells  (7.30 
A.  M.),  the  .sun  being  about  twenty-five  degrees  high, 
and  with  his  sextant  measures  the  height  of  the  sun, 
noting  the  time  by  watch  or  chronometer;  having 
the  latitude,  sun's  altitude  and  the  declination  (which 
latter  is  given  for  every  day  in  the  year  in  the 
Nautical  Almanac),  he  has  three  sides  of  a  spherical 
triangle  to  find  one  angle,  which  is  the  local  apparent 
time. 

As  an  error  of  four  seconds  of  time  is  equivalent 


OX    A    MAN-OF-WAR.  201 

to  one  mile,  it  is  of  importance  that  this  computation 
should  be  accurate.  Of  course,  there  are  numerous 
corrections  to  be  applied  in  the  actual  computation, 
such  as  dip,  refraction,  semi-diameter  and  parallax. 
Having  found,  therefore,  the  latitude  and  longitude, 
their  intersection  on  the  chart  will  be  the  position  of 
the  ship. 

Well,  we  got  under  weigh  one  morning  and  sailed 
out  to  sea  in  the  little  brier,  bound  for  the  blockade 
off  Charleston,  South  Carolina. 

As  it  happened,  the  treasury  of  the  United  States 
was  quite  empty,  and  we  could  get  no  money,  conse- 
quently the  ward-room  mess  were  unable  to  lay  in 
any  stores,  and  we  lived  on  our  rations  of  pork, 
beans,  salt  horse,  etc.  Sot!  it  was  red  hot,  cooped 
up  in  that  little  box,  a  hundred  and  fifty  of  us;  the 
water,  too,  was  warm.  The  tanks  were  so  small  and 
the  ship  so  small  that  she  rode  light,  with  little  draft 
of  water,  and  that  of  the  warmest,  I  assure  you. 

CAPTURE   OF   THE   SAVAXXAH. 

Well,  we  were  detailed  for  the  blockade  of  St. 
Mary's  River,  off  Fernandina,  Florida,  to  see  that 
none  of  'em  got  away,  I  suppose,  and  we  perspired 
off  that  port  for  some  weeks. 

One  day,  when  cruising  between  Charleston  and 
Fernandina,  I  have  forgotten  whether  going  to  or 


202  ON   A    MAN-OF-WAR. 

returning  from  Fernandina,  we  sighted  two  sail,  a 
brig  and  a  schooner,  suspicious,  very  suspicious;  so 
we  went  for  them.  The  brig  kept  away  to  the  east- 
ward, while  the  schooner  hauled  her  wind  for  the 
south.  Following  some  occult  train  of  reasoning  of 
his  own,  our  skipper  concluded  to  follow  the  schooner; 
so  we  followed,  keeping  the  chase  to  leeward  of  us 
on  our  port  bow. 

We  followed  out  the  rules  for  chasing  to  leeward, 
windward,  etc.,  keeping  him  exactly  on  the  same 
bearing  and  gaining  on  him. 

We  chased  him  from  4  P.  M.  until  night,  Avhich  was, 
fortunately  for  us,  clear  and  bright,  when  our  sails 
being  dampened  by  the  dew,  and  being  more  lofty 
than  the  schooner's,  drew  better,  and  we  rapidly 
overhauled  him. 

About  9  P.  M.  we  luffed  up  a  little  and  sent  a  shot 
across  his  bows,  which  he  returned  with  a  shot,  evi- 
dently aimed  at  the  southern  cross,  for  it  went  over 
the  royal  yard.  As  we  lost  way  by  luffing  to  bring 
our  guns  to  bear,  we  concluded  not  to  luff,  but  kept 
steadily  on  after  him.  By  this  time  we  had  all  got 
excited,  and  watched  the  flying  schooner  with  great 
interest,  taking  frequent  bearings  to  see  if  he  had 
drawn  ahead  or  fallen  off.  About  10.30  p.  M.  we  had 
got  so  near  that  we  braced  up  a  little  and  brought 
our  three  guns  and  a  howitzer  on  a  side  to  bear,  and 


OX    A    MAN-OF-WAR.  203 

we  blazed  away,  the  schooner  returning  some  half  a 
dozen  shots. 

By  some  extraordinary  conduct  I  had  so  far  won 
the  confidence  of  the  commander  as  to  be  intrusted 
with  the  sole  control  of  one  twelve-pound  howitzer 
and  four  men,  and  I  shot  off  that  howitzer  at  the 
little  schooner  till  I  couldn't  rest;  a  Gatling  gun 
wasn't  a  patching  to  it.  I  suppose  that  schooner  sur- 
rendered over  a  dozen  times,  but  we  were  excited  and 
fired  away  until,  during  a  lull,  the  captain  of  the 
schooner,  executing  a  war-dance  on  the  deck  of  his 
little  ship,  shouted  so  loudly, 

"I  surrender,  I  surrender;  don't  shoot  any  more !  ** 
that  we  reluctantly  ceased  firing  and  sent  a  boat  to 
him  in  charge  of  the  second  lieutenant. 

In  about  half  an  hour  the  boat  returned,  having 
left  a  prize  crew  on  board,  and  bringing  the  news 
that  the  prize  was  the  privateer  Savannah  from 
Charleston,  South  Carolina,  Baker  commanding. 

When  the  boat  came  alongside,  a  strange  figure,  in 
his  shirt  sleeves,  came  on  board  with  Capt.  Baker, 
remarking  volubly  and  energetically: 

"  You've  treated  me  all  right  aboard  your  old  Stars 
and  Bars,  but  if  you'll  excuse  me,  gentlemen,  I  am 
glad  to  get  back  to  the  old  Stars  and  Stripes." 


!2()4:  ON  A  MAN-OF-WAR. 

HE  WAS  DRUNK,  YES,  VERY  DRUNK. 

It  transpired  that  the  brig  we  saw  had  just  been 
captured  and  a  prize  crew  put  on  board,  the  Savannah 
taking  the  captain  of  the  brig  out  before  sending  her 
away,  and  this  was  the  captain.  He  said,  afterwards, 
that  he  did  not  usually  drink,  but  was  so  blue  over 
the  loss  of  his  ship  that  he  got  drunk  to  drown  his 
sorrows. 

The  next  morning  they  cleaned  the  schooner  out, 
and  threw  over  about  fifty  empty  bottles — more  rum 
than  they  had  powder. 

Capt.  Baker  said  that  he  was  just  twenty-four 
hours  out  from  Charleston;  that  this  was  the  first 
privateer  commissioned;  that  he  had  returned  our 
fire  until  his  pivot  and  only  gun  had  kicked  over  the 
carriage,  and  then  he  surrendered. 

One  shot  went  through  his  foresail,  one  under  the 
main  boom,  one  carried  away  the  jib,  and  his  crew 
refused  to  do  anything,  but  went  below  and  got 
drunk.  So  he  lowered  the  sails  himself  and  hollered 
"  I  surrender  !  "  until  he  was  hoarse. 

We  sent  the  Savannah  home  to  New  York,  and 
some  ten  years  after  I  got  about  $50  prize  money  as 
my  share  of  the  capture. 

We  had  a  report  on  board  ship  that  the  merchants 
of  New  York,  had  offered  a>  bonus  of  $60,000  for  the 
capture  of  the  first  privateer  of  the  war,  and  there 


ON.  A    MAN-OF-WAR.  205 

wasn't  a  man  or  boy  on  board  that  didn't  figure 
before  night  what  his  percentage  of  $60,000  would 
be.  We  searched  around  for  three  or  four  days,  but 
we  didn't  catch  the  brig,  and  long  afterward  we 
learned  that  she  got  safely  into  Georgetown. 

GOBBLING   A   TUG. 

Among  the  papers  of  the  Savannah  we  found  an 
arrangement  with  the  Charleston  authorities  that  a 
signal  of  three  green  lights  and  one  red  light  pre- 
ceded, and  followed  by  a  rocket,  would  mean  that 
the  privateer  Savannah  was  off  the  bar  with  a  prize, 
send  a  tug.  So  after  consulting  with  the  admiral  our 
wily  commander  determined  to  sneak  close  up  to  the 
bar  at  midnight  and  entice  a  tug  out  and  gobble  it. 

We  secured  the  flagship's  pilot,  therefore,  and 
after  lying  all  day,  with  our  prize  in  plain  sight  of 
the  rebels,  we  got  under  weigh  at  dark  and,  in  charge 
of  the  pilot,  we  sailed  softly  in;  every  sailor  was  on 
deck  armed  to  the  teeth,  and  midst  great  excitement, 
all  the  greater  because  suppressed,  we  sailed,  as  I 
remarked  before,  softly  in.  When  we  had  reached  a 
spot  which  the  pilot  said,  in  a  whisper,  was  the  bar, 
we  took  in  the  royal  and  top-gallant  sails,  hauled  up 
the  courses,  and  braced  the  main-yard  aback.  With 
the  utmost  secrecy  a  rocket  was  mysteriously  brought 
on  deck  and  sent  up,  then,  the  quartermaster,  who 


206  ON    A    MAN-OF-AVAR. 

had  had  his  three  green  and  one  red  light  ready 
for  the  last  hour,  hidden  in  a  division  tub,  trotted 
them  out  and  hoisted  them  to  the  main  truck. 
Another  rocket  was  sent  up  and  then  we  waited  for 
the  tug  to  come  out  and  be  gobbled.  An  hour  passed, 
but  no  tug  came. 

Of  course  there  must  be  some  mistake.  So  the 
commander  consulted  the  signal  card  again,  but  it 
was  all  right;  so  up  went  another  rocket,  the  lanterns 
hauled  down,  pricked  up  a  little  and  sent  up  again. 
Well,  we  lounged  around  the  deck  in  all  the  panoply 
of  grim-visaged  war,  all  night,  preceding  and  follow- 
ing more  rockets,  without  results.  It  was  a  fraud. 
No  tug  came  out  to  be  gobbled,  and  we  felt  ill  used. 
Just  at  daylight,  or  a  little  before,  some  one  discov- 
a  long,  low  black  vessel  about  a  mile  distant,  and 
every  one  was  again  all  excitement  and  mystery.  As 
it  lightened,  however,  the  vessel  got  larger,  and  we 
began  to  think  that  they  had  sent  too  big  a  tug  for 
such  a  small  schooner.  As  we  stared  at  the  vessel 
apprehensively,  it  growing  bigger  and  bigger,  a 
quarterinaster,  just  behind  me,  muttered, 
"  If  it  ain't  the  Wabash,  I'm  a  Dutchman." 
Yes,  we  had  been  lying  under  the  stern  of  the 
Wabash,  flagship,  all  night,  sending  up  rockets  and 
showing  green  and  red  lights,  to  the  great  amuse- 
ment of  the  watchers  on  board  that  frigate. 


ON    A    MAN-OF-WAB.  207 

BUM,    PUNCH,    OB   BBANDY. 

We  hear  so  often  of  the  free,  open-hearted  sailor, 
of  his  native  simplicity  and  simple  courage,  that  I 
know  you  will  be  glad  of  an  instance  in  point  rela- 
tive to  the  qualities  described. 

An  old  boatswain's  mate,  learning  that  his  former 
captain  was  in  command  of  a  ship  lying  off  the  navy 
yard,  called  to  pay  his  respects;  he  was  shown  into 
the  cabin,  and  the  captain,  unaffectedly  glad  to  see 
his  old  shipmate,  after  a  moment's  conversation,  said 
hospitably: 

"  Well,  Jack,  of  course  you'll  have  something  to 
drink.  Will  you  have  some  rum  or  some  punch  or  a 
little  brandy  ?  " 

"Thank  ye,  sir,  much  obliged,"  said  the  horny- 
handed  son  of  the  sea,  with  simple  ingenuousness,  "  I 
think  I  will  have  a  little  rum  while  you're  mixing  the 
punch,  and  take  the  brandy  afterward." 

AN    OLD    TIMB    SPLENDID    OFFICES. 

I  remember  once,  when  a  midshipman,  while  stand- 
ing the  mid-watch,  I  was  gossiping  with  one  of  the 
quartermasters  about  the  different  officers  in  the  ser- 
vice. I  was  much  amused  with  the  ideas  of  a  splen- 
did officer  as  entertained  from  the  sailor's  stand-point. 

"  There's  Lieut.  I ,"  said  the  quartermaster, 

"did  you  know  him?  I  sailed  with  him  in  the 


208  ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR. 

Levant;  he  was  a  splendid  officer.  I  have  seen  him 
come  on  deck  to  take  the  mid-watch  so  drunk  that 
he  had  to  hold  on  to  the  bridge  rail,  and  I  have  seen 
him  carry  royals  on  her  until  he  had  the  lee  guns  in 
the  water.  I  tell  ye  he  was  a  bully  officer.  Why, 
he'd  put  you  in  irons  as  soon  as  look  at  ye,  he  would; 
he  used  to  swear  like  a  pirate  when  he  was  working 
ship,  and  he  was  just  as  kind  a  man  as  you'd  ever 
want  to  sail  with.  Yes  (with  a  sigh),  he  was  just  a 
splendid  officer." 

I  am  glad  to  say  however,  that  the  splendid  officers 
ahove  referred  to  are  now  very  few  and  far  between. 

LAKE    HURON    IN   JANUARY. 

One  cold  winter  on  the  lakes,  a  captain  for  a  con- 
sideration, agreed  to  bring  a  steamer  from  Chicago 
to  Detroit.  While  coming  down  Lake  Huron,  one 
evening  in  January,  the  captain  being  on  deck,  beat- 
ing his  arms  to  try  and  keep  from  freezing  to  death, 
he  observed  a  man  going  forward  with  the  red  and 
green  sidelights,  usually  carried  by  vessels  under- 
weigh. 

"  What  are  you  doing  with  those  lights  ? "  he 
shouted. 

"  Going  to  put  'em  on  the  bows." 

"  What  for  ?  Do  you  suppose  that  there  is  any 
other  infernal  fool  out,  this  time  of  year,  but  us  ? 
Put  'em  away." 


ON    A   MAN-OF-WAR.  209 


LETTER  XXI. 

STATIONED  AT  NEWPORT RECEIVING  A  FRENCH    MAN- 
OF-WAR  CONVERSATION    UNDER    DIFFICULTIES 

TELLING   THE    NEWS  IN  FRACTURED  FRENCH THE 

ADMIRAL GRAND    CELEBRATION    ON    THE    FOURTH 

OF  JULY A  BEAUTIFUL  ILLUMINATION AN  INDE- 
SCRIBABLE AND  MAGNIFICENT  DISPLAY AN  UN- 
FORTUNATE INTERRUPTION  AND  CONSEQUENT  LOSS 

OF   DIGNITY A    COLORED    RESERVOIR  OF  FUN  AND 

MISCHIEF TACKING    SHIP    BY    BOOK. 

Shortly  after  the  capture  of  Richmond  we  were 
lying  at  anchor  off  Newport,  Rhode  Island,  when  a 
large  French  man-of-war  came  in  and  anchored  near 
us.  As  it  was  about  6  P.  M  our  captain,  fearing  that 
the  Naval  Academy  authorities  might  not  have 
observed  the  arrival  of  the  stranger,  sent  me  on 
board  to  welcome  the  new-comer  and  explain  that  the 
hopitalities  of  the  port  would  be  extended,  through 
the  proper  officer,  in  the  morning. 

As  I  boarded  the  Frenchman,  I  said,  slowly,  to  the 
first  officer  that  I  met, 

"DO   YOU    SPEAK    ENGLISH,    SIR?" 

He  extended  his  arms,  raised  his  shoulders,  bowed, 
and  passed  me  along  to  a  second,  with, 


210  ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR. 

" Entrez  dans  le  cabin,  Monsieur."  (Enter  the 
cabin,  sir.) 

I  leisurely  said  to  the  second, 

"  Do  you  speak  English,  sir  ?" 

Following  the  precise  example  of  Ms  illustrious 
predecessor,  he  turned  me  over  to  a  third.  After  the 
second  repetition  I  said  confidentially  to  the  fourth, 

"  Surely  you  speak  English,  sir  ?  " 

He  bowed,  extended  his  arms  graciously,  thereby 
raising  his  shoulders,  and  fairly  entered  me  into  the 
cabin. 

I  walked  quickly  up  to  a  fine-looking  officer,  think- 
ing, well,  now  this  is  the  boss,  and  smiling  sweetly, 
chanted  my  everlasting 

"  Do  you  speak  English,  sir  ?  " 

He  smiled,  bowed,  and  extended  his  arms,  thereby 
raising  his  shoulders  (I  think  that  I  have  used  this 
expression  before  somewhere),  and,  turning  to  another 
good-looking  Frenchman,  presented  me  to  the  admiral 
in  French. 

I  bowed  pleasantly  to  the  admiral,  and  drawing 
myself  up  haughtily,  I  gently  whistled, 

"  Do  you  speak  English,  sir  ?  " 

He  smiled  cheerfully,  extended  his  arms,  thereby 
raising  his  shoulders,  bowed  and  said  that  he  didn't. 
Feeling  that  I  had  touched  bottom  I  sank  into  a  chair 
and  said: 


OH   A  MAN-OF-WAK.  211 


I  then  coolly, 

IN   THE    MOST    KXECBABLK    FRENCH, 

announced  who  and  what  I  was;  told  him  that  New- 
port was  a  place  of  baths;  that  the  United  States 
Naval  Academy  was  temporarily  situated  there;  that 
some  one  would  be  off  in  the  morning  to  say  how 
d'ye  do;  that  it  was  a  very  pleasant  day,  and  what 
ship  is  this,  and  where  are  you  from.  He  answered 
that  it  was  the  French  line  of  battle  ship  "Jean 
Bart,"  named  after  our  celebrated  French  privateers- 
man  Jean  Bart,  you  know  (I  said,  "  Oh,  certainly  "), 
from  Martinique. 

While  I  was  trying  to  remember  whether  Martin- 
ique was  in  the  West  Indies,  or  near  Madagascar,  east 
coast  of  Africa,  he  continued  in  an  easy  (for  him) 
chat,  in  French,  as  to  the  weather  they  had  had,  etc., 
winding  up  by  asking, 

"What's  the  news?" 

I  answered, 

"  Oh,  nothing  in  particular,  but  I  have  the  latest 
papers  on  board  and  will  send  them  over  when  I 
return  to  my  own  ship." 

The  admiral  said  then, 

"Where  is  Sherman?" 

"General  Sherman?  I  don't  know;  perhaps  in 
Washington  or  maybe  Chicago." 


212  ON   A   MAN-OF-WAR. 

"  Yes,  but  he  made  a  great  expedition." 

"  Oh,  yes,  a  very  great  expedition." 

"  Yes,  a  big  thing.     But  where  is  he  now  ?  n 

"Where?  I  don't  know  exactly;  I  guess  in 
Washington." 

"  His  army,  where  is  it  ?  " 

I  turned  round  and  said: 

"  Look  here,  Monsieur,  what  is  the  last  news  you 
have  had,  anyway  ?  " 

He  answered, 

"March  1st." 

TELLING   THE   NEWS. 

"  Didn't  you  know  that  Sherman  marched  to  the 
sea;  that  he  captured  Savannah;  that  Richmond  was 
taken;  that  Joe  Johnston  and  Kirby  Smith  had  sur- 
rendered ?  " 

"  Richmond  was  to  be  taken,"  he  said,  "  but  is  not 
yet  taken  ?  " 

"Well,  it  just  is  taken,"  said  I.  "Didn't  you 
know  that  the  President  had  been  assassinated  ?  " 

"  What,  Lincoln  ?  " 

"Yes,  you  see  my  sword  hilt  draped  with  crape, 
and  my  left  arm  with  crape  on  !  " 

"  Then  Mr.  Johnson  is  President  now  ?  " 

"  Yes,  indeed." 

"Oh,  but  that  is  terrible;   the  President  assassin- 


OH   A    MAX-OF-WAR.  213 

Sited:  he  was  a  good  man,  your  Mr.  Lincoln — how 
did  it  happen?" 

Well,  in  my  wretched  French  I  told  the  sad  story 
to  my  excited  hearers,  they  rapidly  supplying  a  word 
when  I  could  not  translate  it.  I  told  who  Booth  was, 
how  he  secreted  himself  near  the  box  of  the  Presi- 
dent at  Ford's  Theater,  how  he  fired,  leaped  to  the 
stage  and  escaped  with  a  broken  leg.  How  he  was 
surrounded  in  a — a — (what  is  that  place  where  yon 
put  horses?)  I&curifr,  thanks;  how  they  said  surren- 
der. No,  I  fight  till  I  die.  How  the  bullet  from 
John  Boston  Corbett's  musket  killed  him,  etc.,  until 
my  mouth  felt  as  if  I  had  chewed  gum  for  two  hours 
steady. 

Just  then  the  cabin  door  opened  and  the  orderly 
announced, 

"  Un  officier  de  la  Marine  des  iZtats  Uiiis." 

I  jumped  up  saying, 

"Here  is 

AX   OFFICER   FROM   THB   HAVAL   ACADEMT. 

I  must  step  out." 

As  I  moved  towards  the  cabin  door  it  opened  again, 
and  a  lieutenant  in  the  United  States  Navy  came  in, 
and  walking  up  to  me  said  hesitatingly, 

"  Est  ce  que  vous  paries  franfais  f  " 

"  Uhpeu,  Tom,"  said  I— a  little. 


214  ON   A   MAN-OF-WAR. 

Poor  old  Tom,  he  was  as  blind  as  a  bat,  and 
couldn't  tell  me  from  a  French  admiral.  Well,  I  rat- 
tled off  what  I  knew,  the  ship's  name,  where  from 
and  what  I  had  told  them,  and,  exacting  a  promise  not 
to  tell  ashore  that  I  had  been  on  board,  I  returned  to 
my  own  ship. 

The  admiral  came  on  board  the  Sabine  before  he 
sailed  from  Newport,  and,  on  leaving,  thanked  me 
kindly  for  my  information  as  above  narrated. 

Our  officer  of  the  deck  spoke  no  French,  but  not 
relishing  being  left  out  of  the  conversation,  would 
shout  back  in  broken  English  answers  to  the  ques- 
tions as  translated.  It  is  funny,  but  it  is  the  preva- 
lent idea  that  when  you  wish  a  foreigner  to  under- 
stand you,  you  must  talk  abominable  English  to  him, 
and  drive  it  home  by  shouting. 

We  afterwards  learned  that  the  admiral  spoke 
English  tolerably  well. 

On  the  following 

FOURTH    OF   JTJLT 

we  were  lying  in  the  harbor  of  New  London,  about 
half  way  between  the  Pequot  House  and  the  city. 
The  captain  had  decided  to  illuminate  the  ship,  in 
honor  of  the  occasion,  in  grand  style,  so  a  liberal 
order  for  pyrotechnics  was  sent  to  Philadelphia,  and 
we  had  on  hand  on  the  day  in  quest/ion  enough  sky- 


ON    A    MAN-OF-WAE.  215 

rockets,  Roman  candles  and  wheels,  to  blow  the  ship 
to — say  Guinea. 

We  made  all  our  arrangements  to  have  the  display 
come  off  at  10.30  P.  M.,  and  the  programme  was 
arranged  with  as  much  system  and  discipline  as  any 
evolution  in  seamanship  would  require. 

At  dusk,  the  men  being  all  stationed  and  whips 
rove,  the  order  was  given, 

"  Lay  aloft," 

"Trice  up," 

and  literally  in  a  twinkling  the  ship  was  covered 
with  lanterns,  and  presented  the  appearance  of  a 
great  constellation. 

I  took  a  boat  and  pulled  to  one  of  the  ships  lying 
near  in  order  to  see  how  she  looked. 

The  effect  was 

BEAUTIFUL    IN   THE    EXTREME. 

We  had  crossed  top-gallant  and  royal  yards  for  the 
purpose,  and  the  lights  at  the  fore,  main  and  mizzen 
trucks,  royal,  top-gallant,  topsail  and  lower  yardarms, 
in  the  tops,  at  end  of  lower  studding-sail,  flying  jib 
and  spanker  booms,  at  each  cat-head,  in  each  gang- 
way, on  each  quarter,  and  at  the  peak,  formed  three 
beautiful  arches  of  lights,  with  a  great  one  at  right 
angles  traversing  the  three,  and  the  ship — from  stem 
to  stern,  from  flying  jib-boom  up,  over  all  the  trucks, 
to  the  spanker  boom. 


216  ON   A   MAN-OF-WAB. 

At  10.30  P.  M.  the  signal  was  given  by  the  firing  of 
a  nine-inch  gun  and  the  men  swarmed  aloft,  each  man 
to  a  lantern;  again,  a  second  gun,  and  the  fire- works 
began. 

The  royal  yard  men  lighted  red  lights,  the  top-gal- 
lant yard  men  white  and  the  topsail  yard  men  blue, 
while  the  men  at  the  lower  yards  burned  all  three 
at  once. 

The  same  order  was  observed  on  the  head  booms. 
In  each  gangway  an  immense  wheel  whizzed  and 
flashed,  while  from  the  forecastle  was  sent  up  a 
rocket  for  each  State. 

The  effect  was 

INDESCRIBABLE    AND    MAGNIFICENT 

in  the  extreme.  Throughout  it  all,  order  and  disci- 
pline reigned;  the' pump  brakes  were  shipped,  the 
hose  led  along,  buckets  of  water  were  filled  and  dis- 
tributed all  over  the  ship,  and  the  sense  of  absolute 
security  from  fire,  with  the  consciousness  of  perfect 
control  should  it  take  place,  enchanced  the  pleasure 
of  the  scene.  The  fire-works  being  soon  over,  the 
debris  was  thrown  into  the  convenient  sea  alongside, 
the  pipes  sounded  the  plaintive  call  for  sweepers,  and 
the  decks  being  swept  clean,  the  "  pipe  down  "  soon 
followed,  and  by  11.30  P.  M.  the  profound  stillness, 
broken  only  by  the  tread  of  the  sentries  and  the  ofli- 


OH   A   MAN-OF-WAR.  '21  i 

eer  of  the  deck,  offered  a  striking  contrast  to  the 
fiery,  exciting  scene  of  an  hour  before. 

ENTERTAINING   PBTEHDS. 

On  one  occasion,  having  been  ordered  as  executive 
officer  of  a  rather  nice-looking  steamer,  I  took  the 
first  opportunity  that  presented  itself  to  invite  some 
of  my  relatives  to  come  on  board  and  see  the  ship, 
and  find  out  what  an  important  individual  I  really 
was. 

Shortly  after  the  party  came  on  board,  I  was  sum- 
moned to  the  mast,  by  the  officer  of  the  deck,  to  hear 
a  complaint  against  one  of  the  crew,  so  turning  my 
friends  over  to  the  care  of  one  of  the  midshipmen,  I 
repaired  to  the  mainmast.  Recognizing  in  the  cul- 
prit an  old  offender,  and  the  act  a  repetition  of  a 
former  offense,  and  being  irritated,  also,  by  being 
called  away  from  my  friends,  I  was  giving  him  fits, 
and  telling  him  just  what  I  was  going  to  do  with 
him,  when  I  felt  a  hand  on  my  shoulder,  and  an 
affectionate  female  voice  say: 

"KJKEP  TOUK  TEMPER,  FRAXKIE, 

Don't  lose  your  temper  my  boy." 

I  felt  the  dignity  of  the  man  who  had  been  execu- 
tive officer  of  six  or  seven  ships  rock  and  sway: 
the  scoundrel  at  the  mast  bit  his  lip  to  keep  from 


218  ON    A   MAN-OF-WAR. 

smiling,  and  feeling  that  I  could  not  do  the  subject 
justice,  I  fled  from  the  sight  of  man — and  woman. 

Frequently  after,  when  working  ship,  and  giving 
some  quick,  short  order,  where  promptness  was  abso- 
lutely necessary,  I  fancied  that  I  could  see  the  smile 
repeated  on  the  faces  of  the  crew  and  that  they  were 
muttering, 

"  Keep  your  temper,  Frankie." 

THE    IBBEPKESSII5LE    DAEKT, 

alluded  to  in  a  former  letter,  used  to  try  my  patience 
very  much. 

Punishment  seemed  to  roll  off  from  his  dusky  hide 
like  water.  I  have  seen  him  stand  on  a  capstan  for 
hours  and  joke  with  some  other  offender  near  by,  at 
the  imminent  risk,  if  detected  by  the  officer  of  the 
deck,  of  being  sentenced  to  four  hours  more. 

Upon  being  asked  after  standing  three  hours  on 
the  topsail  sheet  bitts,  what  he  was  up  there  for, 
he  replied,  with  a  darkey  chuckle, 

"  Lookin'  out  for  whales,  sir." 

One  night  he  was  up  for  punishment,  and  was  pac- 
ing the  lee  side  of  the  quarter-deck;  as  he  walked  up 
and  down,  the  spirit  of  mischief  impelled  him  to  give 
an  extra  slap  on  the  deck  with  his  bare  foot  as  he 
turned  to  go  forward;  it  is  to  be  supposed  that  he 
presumed  that  the  slap  on  the  deck  would  disturb  my 


ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR.  219 

slumbers,  being  applied  just  when  he  was  nearest  the 
window  of  my  state-room  looking  out  on  deck. 

I  opened  the  blind,  and  said  calmly, 

"  If  it  should  happen  that  you  unfortunately  make 
that  noise  once  more  I  shall  be  compelled  to  request 
the  officer  of  the  deck  to  station  you  on  the  capstan, 
where  it  won't  be  noticed." 

For  a  time  the  fear  of  having  to  stand  still  until 
midnight  on  the  capstan,  instead  of  the  freedom  of 
the  deck,  deterred  him,  but  not  long;  he  couldn't 
stand  it,  and  in  less  than  ten  minutes  the  spat  of  his 
big  foot,  just  outside  my  window,  was  the  forerunner 
of  his  transfer  to  the  capstan,  too  far  away  for  him 
to  annoy  me  any  more. 

TACKING   SHIP   BY   BOOK. 

A  midshipman  being  required  to  take  the  deck  and 
tack  ship,  placed  himself  near  the  capstan,  which 
concealed  a  copy  of  "  Totten's  Naval  Text-Book." 

At  the  order  of  "  mainsail  haul,"  the  swing  of  the 
yards  and  heavy  after  sails  turned  over  two  pages 
of  his  book,  unbeknownst  to  him,  to  the  evolution  of 
"bringing  ship  to  an  anchor,"  and  he  astonished  all 
hands  by  promptly  calling  out  the  next  order  on  the 
page,  which  happened  to  be, 

"  Let  go  the  starboard  anchor." 


ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR. 


LETTER  XXH. 

"  Sails  were  spread  to  ev'ry  wind  that  blew, 
Eaw  were  the  sailors,  and  the  depths  were  new." 

A    BATCH    OF     TARNS FALLING    FROM     ALOFT TWO 

MIDSHIPMEN    DISCOVER     WHERE     THE     MIZZEN-TOP- 

SAIL  HALLIARDS  ARE  BELAYED ONE  WAY  TO  GET 

"HOME  ORDERS"  —  A  COLLISION  ON   THE   MISSIS- 
SIPPI   HANGING   JUDAS  ISCARIOT HOW  TO  MAKE 

A    SAILOR    WORK THE    FRENCHMAN'S    FAULT. 

We  were  one  day  beating  into  the  Capes  of  the 
Chesapeake.  The  ship  was  under  all  plain  sail  — 
courses,  topsails,  top-gallant  sails,  royals,  jib,  flying 
jib  and  spanker  —  although  it  was  blowing  quite 
fresh. 

As  we  tacked,  first  to  the  northward,  then  to  the 
southward,  the  breeze  freshening  as  we  got  in  toward 
the  shore,  the  yards  came  round  at  the  order,  "  main- 
sail haul,"  with  great  force,  and  it  seemed  as  if  the 
heavy  tack  and  sheet  blocks  would  stave  in  the  waist 
boats  at  their  davits. 

LOSING   A   YARD. 

On  the  last  tack  the  helm  was  put  down,  the  tack 
raised,  and  at 

"  Haul  taut,"  "mainsail  haul," 


ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR.  221 

round  came  the  main  and  cross-jack  yards  with  a 
tremendous  rush,  and  crash !  went  the  mizzen  top- 
gallant yard,  carried  away  in  the  slings.  We  took  in 
the  mizzen-royal  and  top-gallant  sail  and  sent  down 
the  yard  for  repairs.  The  yard  was  broken  square  in 
two,  and  there  was  nothing  to  do  but  to  make  a  new 
one  out  of  a  spare  spar,  which  was  done  so  soon  that 
it  was  up  and  across  on  the  following  day.  I  called 
the  small  boy  to  me,  that  was  tending  the  mizzen  top- 
gallant and  royal  braces,  but  he  swore  by  all  that  he 
most  valued,  namely,  his  ration  of  duff,  that  he  did 
let  go  the  brace,  and  that  it  didn't  jam  in  the  block, 
so  I  had  authentic  information  that  the  yard  broke 
itself,  and  it  is  so  recorded  in  the  log  book,  the  vera- 
cious history  of  our  celebrated  cruise. 

FALLING   FROM   ALOFT. 

Men  and  boys  frequently  fall  from  aloft,  generally, 
however,  from  their  own  carelessness;  they  become 
used  to  moving  about  quickly,  while  aloft,  and  if 
permitted  will  run  the  most  foolhardy  risks. 

I  had  to  give  a  peremptory  order,  inflicting  a  severe 
penalty  on  any  of  the  crew  who  should  run  out  on 
the  yards  instead  of  by  the  foot  ropes,  which  hang 
below  the  yard,  enabling  the  person  to  hold  on  to  the 
yard  itself.  At  sea,  no  man  is  permitted  to  work 
outside  the  ship's  rail  unless  he  has  a  bowline  round 


222  ON    A    MAN-OF-WAK. 

him,  with  the  end  of  the  rope  fast  inboard,  yet  they 
will  do  it,  unless  very  carefully  watched. 

Midshipmen  frequently  fall  from  aloft,  but  being 
warrant  officers,  they  invariably  escape  serious  injury. 
I  saw  one  fall  from  the  main  top-gallant  yard,  strike 
on  the  topsail  yard  and  bound  down  into  the  main- 
top, and  he  was  all  right  again  in  two  days;  another 
fell  from  the  fore  top-gallant  yard,  down  about 
twenty-five  feet,  on  to  the  topsail  yard,  thence  about 
forty  feet,  striking  the  belly  of  the  foresail,  bounded 
up,  came  down  crosswise  on  a  windsail  bowline, 
stretched  across  the  forecastle,  about  ten  feet  above 
the  deck,  and  came  down  sitting,  somewhat  bewil- 
dered, but  not  hurt;  a  third,  just  as  he  climbed  on  the 
rim  of  the  foretop,  turned  his  foot  on  a  small  rope, 
called  the  starboard  fore  top-gallant  studding-sail 
boom  tricing  line,  fell  striking  his  chin  on  the  rim  of 
the  top,  breaking  several  back  teeth,  lit  in  the  fore- 
rigging  on  his  back,  rolled  down  the  incline,  bounded 
over  the  rail,  striking  his  head  on  one  of  the  guns, 
projecting  from  a  gun-deck  port,  and  into  the  water, 
a  distance  entire  of  seventy-five  feet.  He  was  picked 
up,  and  was  able  to  be  about  in  a  few  days,  nearly  as 
good  as  new.  If  he  had  been  anything  but  a  mid- 
shipman he  would  have  been  killed  three  or  four 
times.  A  friend  of  mine  on  shore,  who,  unfortun- 
ately for  him,  was  not  one  of  those  who  "  seldom  die 


ON   A   MAN-OF-WAR.  223 

and  never  resign,"  fell  off  his  chair  one  day  and 
broke  his  arm  so  badly  that  he  had  to  have  it  taken 
off. 

KILLING   A   FOEE-TAED    MAN. 

A  few  days  after,  while  at  anchor  in  the  Elizabeth 
River,  off  Norfolk,  all  hands  were  called  for  exercise 
in  loosing  and  furling  sail.  The  top-gallant  and  royal 
yard  men  had  started  first,  followed  by  the  topmen, 
and  the  orders  had  been  given, 

"  Aloft,  lower  yard  men," 

"Man  the  boom  tricing  lines," 

"  Trice  up." 

The  heavy  topmast  studding-sail  booms,  which  lie 
on  the  fore-yard,  when  triced  up,  swing  aft  somewhat, 
as  soon  as  they  clear  the  yard,  on  account  of  the  lead 
of  the  tricing  line  aft.  The  order  being  given, 

"Lay  out  and  loose," 

a  number  of  fore-yard  men  laid  out  on  the  yard,  and 
a  young  fellow  about  nineteen  stepped  upon  the 
patent  truss,  at  the  same  time  looking  aft  and  laugh- 
ing at  some  one  following  him.  Just  then  the  heavy 
boom  swung  aft  and  struck  him  in  the  head.  He  fell 
some  fifty  feet  and  struck  the  man  who  was  tending 
the  tricing  line,  between  the  shoulders,  then  struck 
the  fife-rail  and  dropped  on  deck.  The  foremast 
man,  who  was  considerably  hurt,  let  go  the  tricing 
line,  and  the  heavy  boom  came  down  again,  and 


224  ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR. 

pinned  about  a  dozen  boys,  who  were  loosing  sail,  to 
the  yard.  It  was  very  ludicrous  for  a  moment,  to 
see  those  little  fellows  jammed  in  under  the  boom 
with  their  arms  and  legs  sticking  out  forward  and 
aft,  looking  as  if  they  were  spitted  like  butterflies. 
There  were  so  many  of  them,  however,  that  no  one 
was  seriously  hurt,  and  they  could  not  fall  because 
they  were  under  the  boom.  The  poor  fellow  that 
fell,  however,  was  injured  internally,  and  lived  only 
twenty-four  hours. 

INSTRUCTING    MIDSHIPMEN. 

One  day  we  were  making  sail,  the  topsails  had 
been  hoisted,  and  every  one  was  flying  around  in 
answers  to  the  quick,  sharp  orders  of  the  otticer  of 
the  deck. 

"  Let  go  the  port  mizzen  topsail  buntline," 

some  one  said,  so  Andy  H ,  a  midshipman,  anxious 

to  do  something,  jumped  aft  and  let  go  the  mizzen 
topsail  halliards.  The  yard  came  down  with  a  run; 
the  rope  darted  up  in  the  air;  Andy  held  on  until  he 
was  about  ten  feet  up,  and  then  dropped  on  deck  on 
his  back,  having  lost  most  of  the  skin  from  his  hands. 

But  old   Kirby   K ,  a  sleepy,  good-natured  fat 

midshipman,  who  was  standing  in  the  port  gangway, 
looking  on  amiably  at  the  bustle  around  him,  did 
not  observe  that  his  feet  were  in  the  bight  of  the 


OK   A   MA3T-OF-WAK.  225 

topsail  halliards,  which  had  not  been  coiled  down 
since  the  hoisting  of  the  saiL  When  Andy  let  go 
the  rope,  however,  and  his  feet  shot  out  from  under 
him,  he  sat  down  and  wondered  if  the  earthquake 
had  killed  any  more  beside  himself.  Both  Andy  and 
Kirby  know  now  exactly  where  the  mizzen  topsail 
halliards  are  belayed. 

A  SAITTTE. 

We  were  one  day  making  preparations  for  firing  a 
salute,  when  a  boat  dashed  alongside  and  an  English 
officer  came  on  board.  He  introduced  himself  as  the 
commander  of  H.  B.  M.  Styx,  lying  a  few  hundred 
yards  from  us  on  our  port  beam. 

He  laughingly  alluded  to  a  quarrel  between  our 
men  and  the  crew  of  the  English  man-of-war  Buz- 
zard, and  said,  that  seeing  that  we  were  about  to 
lire  a  salute,  he  thought  it  safe  to  call  and  ask  that 
we  would  take  particular  care  that  ail  the  tompions 
were  removed  from  the  guns  before  firing. 

"  Sailors  will  be  sailors  you  know,"  he  said,  a  and 
as  we  are  lying  right  under  your  guns,  one  or  two  of 
those  heavy  tompions,  left  in,  would  make  a  hole  in 
us." 

I  have  met  a  great  number  of  English  naval  offi- 
cers, and  take  great  pleasure  in  saying  that  they  are 
invariably  gentlemen. 


2t)  ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR. 

A.  "MIDDY'S"  BUSK. 

An  order  came  out  to  the  commodore  of  the  East 
India  squadron  to  send  all  the  forty  date  of  midship- 
men home  for  examination. 

The  word  was  passed  for  all  the  young  gentlemen 
who  had  entered  the  service  in  1840  to  report  on  the 
quarter-deck.  When  the  old  commodore  came  out, 
and  looked  at  the  overjoyed  youngsters,  who  were 
going  home,  he  asked  each  one  gruffly: 

"  Are  you  forty  date,  sir  ?  " 

"  Are  you  sir  ?  " 

"You,  sir?" 

until  he  came  to  a  midshipman  who  had  entered  two 
years  later,  and  who  was  standing  quite  near  the  rest, 
who  hesitatingly  answered, 

"  I  sir,  I  am  forty-two,  sir." 

When  the  young  gentleman  reached  the  States,  the 
Department  showed  some  surprise  that  the  commo- 
dore should  have  sent  home  one  of  the  forty-two 
date,  who  had  only  been  on  the  station  a  year. 

DUCKING   A   BECUSANT. 

A  number  of  years  ago,  on  board  one  of  our  large 
frigates,  one  of  the  men  refused  to  do  duty,  "  defy- 
ing the  whole  caboodle  of  'em  to  make  him  do  any- 
thing." So  the  first  lieutenant  sent  for  one  of  the 
stout  coal  bags,  and  putting  a  couple  of  round  shot 


ON   A   MAN-OF-WAR.  227 

in  the  bottom  to  give  weight  to  the  discipline,  he  had 
the  unruly  member  placed  in  it,  with  his  hands  tied 
behind  him,  the  bag  being  tightly  laced  around  his 
throat,  with  his  head  out.  Amid  sarcastic  remarks 
by  the  rebel,  a  line  was  bent  on  to  the  becket  or  handle, 
run  through  a  block  on  the  fore  yard-arm,  thence 
through  a  block  in  the  slings  of  the  yard,  and  being 
snatched  was  led  along  the  deck.  At  the  order,  fifty 
men  ran  away  with  the  line,  and  our  hero  was  sud- 
denly swung  oscillating  and  vibrating  to  the  fore 
yard-arm.  As  soon  as  he  got  his  breath  he  railed  at 
all  hands,  and  abused  everybody  until  he  was  tired. 
The  mastman,  watching  his  opportunity,  suddenly 
threw  off  the  turn,  and  down  a  clean  drop  of  sixty 
feet,  went  the  coal  bag  into  the  water.  Away  went 
the  men  again  with  a  run  (they  enjoyed  it  as  much  as 
any  one,  and  even  more  than  the  man  in  the  bag),  and 
dripping  and  puffing,  up  went  the  bag  man  to  the 
yard-arm. 

Still  unsubdued,  he  swore  and  talked  until  he  saw 
that  no  one  paid  any  attention  to  him,  and  finally 
under  the  influence  of  the  wetting  and  the  hot  sun, 
he  got  asleep.  Off  went  the  turn  again,  and  down 
went  the  bag  again,  carried  well  under  water  by  the 
friendly  round  shot,  inside,  and  then  up  went  the 
dripping  victim  to  his  station.  When  he  got  fairly 
up,  and  the  horrible  vibrations  had  somewhat  ceased, 


iiZO  ON    A    MAX-OF-AVAR. 

he  looked  appealingly  to  the  officer  of  the  deck  and 
said: 

"  May  I  be  let  down,  sir  ?  " 

"  Certainly,"  was  the  reply. 

Up  went  a  topman  and  bending  a  gny  to  the  guy  in 
the  bag,  he  was  tenderly  landed  on  deck,  and  set  at 
liberty,  turning  out  afterwards  one  of  the  best  men 
in  the  ship. 

You  must  remember,  my  boy,  that  these  occurred 
in  the  palmy  days,  and  if  an  executive  officer  tried 
any  such  thing  now,  the  erudite  and  better  posted 
sailor  would  prefer  charges  against  him  as  long  as 
your  arm,  and  which  forwarded  to  the  N"avy  Depart- 
ment might  deprive  the  arm  of  the  service  of  a  valu- 
able auxiliary. 

THE  FRENCHMAN'S  FAULT. 

While  one  of  our  frigates  lay  at  Malta,  in  the  Medi- 
terranean, some  of  the  crew,  on  liberty,  got  into  a  ter- 
rible fight  with  the  crew  of  a  French  man-of-war. 

The  executive  officer  was  holding  an  investigation 
at  the  mast,  the  following  day,  when  the  captain  of 
the  maintop  came  up,  and  offered  the  folloAving 
explanation: 

"  You  see,  sir,  it  was  all  the  Frenchman's  fault,  sir. 
Me,  and  the  coxswain  of  the  gig,  and  Jimmy  Leggs, 
and  the  captain  of  the  foretop,  sir,  was  a  walking 


ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR.  22S) 

down  the  street,  just  as  quiet  as  lambs,  sir,  when 
along  came  some  Frenchman  from  the  .E'twoil.  I 
wanted  to  be  civil,  so  I  says  to  'em, 

"  *  Will  you  come  in  and  take  a  drink  ?  says  L' 

" '  Kay  ? '  says  he. 

"  '  Kay  ? '  says   Jimmy  Leggs,  '  what  kind  of   an 
answer  is  that  to  give  a  gentleman  ?  ' 
and  he  up  and  hit  him;  and  that's  the  way  the  row 
began,  sir.     You  see,  sir,  it  were  all  the  Frenchman's 
fault,  sir." 


230  ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR. 


LETTER 

"  Come,  seize  your  glasses,  fellowa, 

And  sit  down  in  a  ring; 
For  'tis  about  this  Naval  School, 

That  I'm  about  to  sing. 
You've  oft  heard  tell  of  middies? 

God  bless  the  young  heroes ! 
And  if  half  of  them  do  not  'bilge, 

They'll  be  a  terror  to  their  foes. 

U.    8.  NAVAL   ACADEMY HOW  TO  OBTAIN  AN  APPOINT- 
MENT   QUALIFICATIONS  FOB  ADMISSION — PAY  AND 

EXPENSES DESCBIPTION  OF  THE  ACADEMY THB 

DAILY    BOUTINE. 

For  the  benefit  of  the  aspirants  for  future  naval 
honors,  I  give  a  brief  synopsis  of  the  only  method  of 
entering  the  navy  of  the  United  States  as  an  officer. 
All  regular  line  officers  of  the  navy  must  be  gradu- 
ates of  the  United  States  Naval  Academy,  now  situ- 
ated at  Annapolis,  Maryland. 

NOMINATION. 

The  number  of  cadet-midshipmen  allowed  at  the 
Academy  is  one  for  every  member  and  delegate  of 
the  House  of  Representatives;  one  for  the  District 
of  Columbia,  and  ten  appointed  annually  at  large. 

The  nomination  of  candidates  for  admission  from 
the  District  of  Columbia  and  at  large  is  made  by  the 
President.  The  nomination  of  a  candidate  from  any 


ON   A   MAXOF-WAR.  2ol 

Congressional  district  or  territory  is  made  on  the 
recommendation  of  the  member  or  delegate  from 
actual  residents  of  his  district  or  territory. 

Each  year,  as  soon  after  the  5th  of  March  as  pos- 
sible, members  and  delegates  will  be  notified  in  writ- 
ing of  vacancies  that  may  exist  in  their  districts.  If 
such  members  or  delegates  neglect  to  recommend 
candidates  by  the  first  of  July  in  that  year,  the 
Secretary  of  the  Navy  is  required  by  law  to  fill  the 
vacancies  existing  in  districts  actually  represented  in 
Congress.  They  will  be  filled  by  appointments  from 
the  districts  in  which  the  vacancies  exist. 

The  nomination  of  candidates  is  made  annually 
between  the  5th  of  March  and  the  1st  of  July. 
Candidates  who  are  nominated  in  time  to  enable  them 
to  reach  the  academy  on  the  21st  of  June  will  receive 
permission  to  present  themselves  at  that  time  to  the 
Superintendent  of  the  Naval  Academy  for  examina- 
tion as  to  their  qualifications  for  admission.  Those 
who  are  nominated  prior  to  July  1st,  but  not  in  time 
to  attend  the  June  examination,  will  be  examined  on 
die  12th  of  September  following;  and  should  any 
candidate  fail  to  report,  or  be  found  physically  or 
mentally  disqualified  for  admission  in  June,  the  mem- 
ber or  delegate  from  whose  district  he  was  nominated 
will  be  notified  to  recommend  another  candidate,  who 
shall  be  examined  on  the  12th  of  September  follow- 


232  OX    A    MAN-OF-WAR. 

ing.  When  any  of  the  dates  assigned  for  examina- 
tions fall  on  Sunday,  the  examination  will  take  place 
on  the  following  Monday. 

A  sound  body  and  healthy  constitution,  good  men- 
tal abilities,  a  natural  aptitude  for  study  and  habits 
of  application,  persistent  effort,  an  obedient  and 
orderly  disposition,  and  correct  moral  principles  and 
deportment,  are  so  necessary  to  success  in  pursuing 
the  course  at  the  academy,  that  persons  conscious  of 
deficiency  in  these  respects  are  earnestly  recommended 
not  to  subject  themselves  or  their  friends  to  the 
mortification  and  disappointment  consequent  upon 
failure,  by  accepting  nominations  and  attempting  to 
enter  a  service  for  which  they  are  not  fitted. 

EXAMINATION. 

Each  candidate  for  appointment  as  cadet-midship- 
man must  present  to  the  Academic  Board  satisfactory 
testimonials  of  good  moral  character,  and  must  certify 
on  honor  to  his  precise  age,  which  must  be  over  four- 
teen and  less  than  eighteen  years  at  the  time  of  the 
examination.  No  candidate  will  be  examined  whose 
age  does  not  fall  within  the  prescribed  limits. 

Candidates  must  be  physically  sound,  well  formed, 
and  of  robust  constitution;  they  will  be  required  to 
pass  a  satisfactory  examination  before  a  medical 
board  composed  of  one  of  the  medical  officers  of  the 


ON   A    MAN-OF-WAR.  2£o 

Naval  Academy  and  two  other  medical  officers  to 
be  designated  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy. 

ADMISSION. 

Candidates  who  pass  the  physical  and  mental 
examinations  will  receive  appointments  as  cadet-mid- 
shipmen and  become  inmates  of  the  academy.  Each 
cadet  will  be  required  to  sign  articles  by  which  he 
binds  himself  to  serve  in  the  United  States  navy 
eight  years  (including  his  time  of  probation  at  the 
Xaval  Academv),  unless  sooner  discharged.  The 
pay  of  a  cadet-midshipman  is  $500  a  year,  com- 
mencing at  the  date  of  his  admission. 

Each  cadet-midshipman  must,  on  admission,  deposit 
with  the  paymaster  the  sum  of  $50,  for  which  he  will 
be  credited  on  the  books  of  that  officer,  to  be 
expended,  by  direction  of  the  superintendent,  in  the 
purchase  of  text-books  and  other  authorized  articles. 

All  the  deposits  for  clothing,  and  the  entrance- 
deposit  of  $50  must  be  made  before  a  candidate  can 
be  received  into  the  academy. 

SUMMARY    OF    EXPENSES. 

Deposit  for  clothing, $169  70 

Deposit  for  books,  etc., 50  00 


Total  deposit  required, $219 


234  ON     A    MAN-OF-WAR. 

The  value  of  clothing  brought  from  home  is  to  be 
deducted  from  this  amount. 

Each  cadet-midshipmen,  one  month  after  admission, 
will  be  credited  with  the  amount  of  his  actual 
expenses  in  traveling  from  his  home  to  the  academy. 

A  cadet-midshipman,  who  voluntarily  resigns  his 
appointment  within  a  year  of  the  time  of  his  admis- 
sion to  the  academy,  will  be  required  to  refund  the 
amount  paid  him  for  traveling  expenses. 

THE    ACADEMY 

is  delightfully  situated,  with  the  City  of  Annapolis 
on  two  sides  and  the  Severn  River  and  Chesapeake 
Bay  on  the  other  two. 

The  grounds  are  inclosed  or  separated  from  the 
city  by  a  high  brick  wall  with  two  gates,  and  mid- 
shipmen cannot  pass  beyond  the  limits  of  the  acad- 
emy except  by  written  permission. 

The  midshipmen  live  in  quarters,  the  different 
classes  being  as  much  as  practicable  together. 

The  Superintendent  of  the  Aacademy  is  a  naval 
officer  of  high  rank,  and  the  supervision  and  instruc- 
tion of  the  cadets  is,  as  much  as  practicable,  directly 
by  naval  officers. 

There  is  an  academic  examination  in  February,  the 
academic  year  beginning  October  1,  and  the  regular 
annual  examination  in  June  of  each  year  for  each 


OH    A    MAN-OF-WAB.  235 

class,  at  which  a  board  of  visitors,  appointed  by  the 
President  of  the  United  States,  is  present. 

A  graduate  of  the  Naval  Academy  will  have  had 
thorough  instruction  in  mathematics  as  high  as  trigo- 
nometry, analytical  geometry  and  conic  sections;  in 
seamanship,  naval  construction,  naval  tactics,  gun- 
nery, infantry  tactics,  field  artillery  and  mortar  prac- 
tice, fencing,  steam  ensrineerinsr,  astronomy,  naviga- 
tion and  surveying,  physics  and  chemistry,  mechanics, 
law,  history,  drawing,  French  and  Spanish;  and  he 
will  not  get  through  the  various  examinations  in 
these  branches  unless  he  is  thoroughly  posted  in  each. 
I  am  happy  to  say  that  a  Michigan  representative 
took  a  single  number  last  year,  graduating  Xo.  5  in  a 
class  of  45. 

The  academy  grounds  are  verv  delightfully  laid 
out  with  walks  and  fountains,  boat-houses,  with  num- 
erous boats  to  be  used  under  reasonable  restrictions, 
ervmnasium,  fencing  and  dancing  hall,  and  a  fine 
band;  and  is  altogether  a  very  enjoyable  place  to  ob- 
tain a  first-class  education. 

THE    DAILY    BO U TINE 

is  as  follows: 
Reveille,  6  A.  M. 
Roll-call  and  chapel,  6.45  A.  n. 
Breakfast,  7  A.  x. 


236  ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR. 

Sick  call,  7.30  A.  M. 

Bugle  call  to  studies,  7.56  A.  M. 

Bugle  call  for  first  recitation,  8.26  A.  M. 

Bugle  call  for  second  recitation,  9.26  A.  M. 

Bugle  call  for  third  recitation,  10.41  A.  M. 

Bugle  call  for  fourth  recitation,  11.41  A.  M. 

Drum  dinner  call,  12.55  p.  M. 

Bugle  call  for  first  afternoon  recitation,  1.56  P.  M. 

Bugle  call  for  second  afternoon  recitation,  2.56  P.  M. 

Bugle  call  to  drill,  4.05  p.  M. 

Bugle  recall  for  drill,  5.15  p.  M. 

Drum  evening  roll-call  and  parade,  then  supper, 
6.30  p.  M. 

Drum  call  for  gymnastic  exercises,  15  minutes 
after  supper. 

Bugle  call  to  evening  studies,  7.30  p.  M. 

Gun  fire  and  tattoo,  9.30  p.  M. 

Taps,  10  P.  M. 

On  Sundays  the  programme  is  somewhat  different, 
there  being  no  recitations  or  drills.  On  Saturday 
there  is  a  drill  in  the  forenoon  at  great  guns,  naval 
tactics,  or  howitzer,  or  something  of  that  kind,  the 
remainder  of  the  day  and  evening  being  for  recrea- 
tion. 

The  junior  class  entering  in  September  goes  to  sea 
in  June,  after  the  examination,  for  a  practice  cruise 
until  October  1.  The  following  June  they  go  on  a 


OH   A  MAX-OF-WAK.  23  • 

leave  of  absence  for  the  same  time;  going  to  sea  for 
the  second  time  in  the  June  following,  and  graduating 
a  year  from  that  time,  in  June,  as  midshipmen,  after 
a  course  of  four  years. 

I  see,  however,  by  the  last  reports,  that  the  Super- 
intendent of  the  Xaval  Academy  recommends  that 
for  the  present  a  fewer  number  of  midshipmen  and 
engineers  be  graduated  from  the  academy,  as  with 
our  few  ships  and  small  navv  the  supply  is  greater 
than  the  demand.  Consequently  the  prospect  is  that 
an  officer  will  attain  middle  life  before  reaching  even 
a  medium  rank  in  the  service. 


238  ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR. 


LETTER  XXIV. 

REMINISCENCES  OF  THE  OLD  NAVAL  ACADEMY  —  MEET- 
ING A  CLASSMATE  BEINGS  BACK  "THE  BOYS "  TO 
MEMORY THE  PRANKS  OF  MISCHIEVOUS  MIDSHIP- 
MEN REPEATED  FOR  THE  BENEFIT  OF  THEIR  CHIL- 
DREN  A  PLEASANT  MEMORY  OF  GUSHING  OF  THE 

ALBEMARLE MUSICAL    CULTURE    OF    THE    SECOND 

CLASS PET  NAMES  FOR  PRETTY  BOYS ORIGINAL 

EXERCISES    WITH     A    LIGHT     BATTERY BRICKS    AS 

AMMUNITION. 

I  met  an  old  classmate  the  other  day,  and  we 
talked  about 

THE    OLD   NAVAL  ACADEMY 

all  the  evening.  There  were  lots  of  names  that  I 
had  almost  forgotten,  but  the  train  of  conversation 
brought  them  all  up,  even  to  their  initials. 

You  remembc  n  Harrison;  he  was  from  Vir- 
ginia, and  went  south  during  the  war.  You  remem- 
ber how  he  threw  a  brick  at  the  watchman's  lantern 
and  smashed  it,  and  was  so  sound  asleep  when  Johnny 

M came  round  to  inspect  that  he  couldn't  be 

waked  up,  and  how  poor  old  W n  up  stairs,  who 

was  safe  in  bed,  as  he  thought,  after  being  "  out  on 
French,"  was  made  to  walk  a  seam,  and  failing 


ON    A   MAN-OF-WAB.  239 

ignominiously,  was  suspended  for  being  tight  ?  "  At- 
tention to  orders.  Acting  Midshipman  Charles  H. 
W n  is  hereby  placed  under  suspension  for  viola- 
tion of  article  7  of  the  United  States  Naval  Academy 
regulations  —  intoxication.  He  will,  therefore,  while 
thus  under  suspension,  govern  himself  in  strict 
accordance  with  article  39,  chapter  11  of  the  regula- 
tions established  by  the  Navy  Department.  L.  M. 
Goldsborough,  Superintendent." 

OLD    GBISWOLD. 

You  remember  Griswold,  George  H. ;  he  was  from 
Detroit;  he  roomed  with  Gregory,  of  New  York. 
Gregory  shaved  Gris  wold's  eyebrows  off  one  evening 
while  he  was  asleep,  and  he  did  look  like  thunder. 
Gregory  used  to  play  the  organ  in  the  chapel,  and 
would  "  wander  by  the  brookside n  in  the  voluntary 
until  some  professor's  attention  was  called  to  it, 
when  he  would  tone  down  in  a  hymn. 

Griswold  afterwards  roomed  v"  ohnny  Nor- 
throp, from  South  Carolina;  h  .v>ok  John's  pil- 
low-case off  one  evening  to  get  snell  oysters  in,  and 
the  ever-patient  John  got  mad  and  licked  him  for  it. 

Griswold  and  Gregory  came  out  of  dinner  one  day 
and  went  into  Sanderson's  room,  in  No.  3  building 
(Sanderson  was  a  tall,  lanky  fellow  from  Pennsyl- 
vania), and  tilted  the  table  up  against  the  door  and 


240  ON   A   MAN-OF-WAR. 

piled  mattress,  wash-bowl  and  pitcher,  looking-glass 
and  bottle  of  ink  on  top  of  everything,  so  when  old 
Sanderson  burst  into  his  room  it  would  all  come 
down,  and  Sanderson  was  spotted  next  day  for  "  ink 
on  floor,"  and  got  six  demerits. 

You  know  200  demerits,  in  one  year,  would  dismiss 
you.  You  remember  Gregory  got  580  before  the 
February  examination.  The  daily  report  of  conduct 
at  evening  parade  used  to  read:  Gregory,  visiting 
in  study  hours,  10;  the  same,  the  same,  10;  the  same, 
untidy  room,  bed  not  made  at  morning  inspection,  6 ; 
the  same,  inattentive  at  drill,  4;  the  same,  absent 
from  8  A.  M.  recitation,  6;  the  same,  skylarking  dur- 
ing study  hours,  etc.;  Robinson,  C.  H.,  skulking 
from  drill. 

THERE    WAS    DICK    PBENTISS,  POOR    FELLOW, 

he  was  killed  at  Mobile.  Dick  taught  us  how  to 
blow  the  gas  out  in  the  rest  of  the  building,  by  put- 
ting your  handkerchief  over  the  burner  and  blowing 
in  the  pipe  until  you  were  black  in  the  face;  and  how 
to  rig  tin  water  pails  over  the  door  so  as  to  duck  the 
officer  in  charge  when  he  came  round  and  opened  the 
door. 

Dick  and  another  fellow  were  down  on  the  wharf 
one  day,  and  the  other  fellow  said  he  would  jump 
in  if  Dick  would,  so  Dick  jumped  in  over  his  head, 
and  then  the  other  fellow  wouldn't  jump. 


OX    A    MAH-OF-WAK.  241 

You  remember  Cashing,  of  the  Albemarle,  and  I 
had  a  fight  behind  the  battery  one  evening,  and 
Gushing — no — I,  got  thrashed? 

BOOTS. 

Old  John  Taylor  Wood  came  round  inspecting  one 
day,  and  Shute  (you  remember  Francis  Asbury  Shute, 
of  Mulliky  Hill,  New  Jersey)  had  put  a  pair  of  boots 
artistically  under  his  bed,  and  pulled  the  spread 
down  so  you  could  just  see  them.  So  old  John  said, 
gruffly, 

"  Visiting  in  study  hours,  eh  ?  Come  out." 
And  when  he  didn't  come  out,  he  pulled  at  the 
boots,  which  readily  came  out,  colored  crimson  and 
went  out.  The  next  day  you  could  see  artistic  boots 
in  nearly  every  room  in  No.  1  building,  and  an  order 
came  out,  **  that  the  bed  spread  should  be  tucked  in 
under  the  mattress,  so  a  clear  view  of  the  floor  could 
be  had." 

THB   SECOXD   CLASS   GOT  A  HAJTO-OBGAH, 

and  used  to  serenade  everybody  in  the  yard,  until  one 
day  a  fellow  was  playing  daring  study  hours,  in  a 
window  on  the  third  floor  of  No.  4  building,  when  a 
watchman  came  to  the  room  and  said, 

"  That  the  officer  in  charge  had  sent  down  for  that 
•  r_:ar.." 

"  This  organ  ? "  said  the  midshipman,  giving  it  a 


242  ON   A   MAN-OF-WAR. 

careless  nudge  with  his  elbow,  "why  certainly," 
and  the  watchman  gathered  up  the  pieces  of  pipe  on 
the  pavement  thirty  feet  below,  or  what  was  left  of 
them.  The  superintendent  of  the  building  got 
spotted,  however,  for  neglect  of  duty  in  permitting 
an  organ  to  be  played  during  study  hours. 

YOU   REMEMBER  "  KATT." 

The  midshipmen  called  him  Katy  because  he  had 
such  red  cheeks  and  was  go  pretty.  Tom  Mills  used 
to  say, 

"  Katy,  you  dear  old  girl,  come  here  and  give  me  a 
kiss  and  stop  beating  the  drum." 

Katy  was  knock-kneed  a  little,  which,  in  sailor  par- 
lance, was  called  beating  the  drum.  There  was 
"Fanny"  Spencer  —  he's  dead  now,  poor  fellow; 
"Martha  "  Dickens,  " Sophy  "  Swan,  "  Polly  "  White, 
"  Nancy  "  Blue,  all  pretty  boys.  They  have  grown 
up  into  bearded  officers  with  little  trace  of  their 
former  red  cheeks. 

Old  C.  S.  Hunt;  he  got  very  much  excited  on  reli- 
gion, Darwinism,  and  resigned.  He  said  he  had  saved 
up  enough  money  when  he  "  went  on  leave,"  to  pay  his 

fare  home  and  back  and  give  "  Yank  R ginger 

snaps  all  the  way."  Yank  is  a  commander  now,  and 
a  very  good  one,  I  hear. 


ON    A   MAN-OF-WAB.  243 

"  D U-VK ER  "  A. 

You  remember  the  day  we  were  all  down  to  recita- 
tion in  electricity  with  Hopkins,  and  we  all  formed  a 
line  round  a  Leyden  jar,  and  Dunk  touched  the  knob 
and  seemed  to  be  fearfully  overcome  with  the  shock, 
kicked  over  the  jar  and  rolled  over  and  over  on  the 
floor,  until  old  Hopkins  laughed  himself  hoarse,  say- 
ing, that  he  never  saw  it  affect  any  one  so  before. 

Dunk  was  attached  to  the  academy  afterward,  at 
Newport,  as  a  lieutenant,  and  on  his  first  day's  duty 
at  the  Atlantic  House,  the  watchman  came  in  and 
reported  that  the  lower  sash  of  room  No.  26  was 
raised.  Dunk  said  at  once: 

"  Will  you  please  tell  me  what  in  thunder  I  care 
whether  the  lower  sash  is  raised  or  not  ?  " 

So  I  had  to  explain  that  the  lower  lights  of  glass 
are  painted  and  are  not  to  be  raised  during  study 
hours,  so  the  attention  of  the  midshipman  shall  not 
be  taken  from  his  studies. 


Do  you  remember  old  Ka-nipe  ?  He  used  to  cut 
his  tobacco  in  so  many  pieces  and  put  himself  on  an 
allowance  of  so  many  chews  a  day,  and  when  he  was 
on  the  pledge  not  to  use  tobacco  in  the  academy 
grounds,  he  went  out  on  Long  Wharf  and  stuck  a 
plank  out  over  the  Severn  River  and  sat  on  the  end 


244:  ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR. 

of  it,  so  as  to  be  outside  the  academy  limits,  and 
chewed  and  spit  into  the  river. 

ECCENTRIC    ARTILLERY   DRILL. 

Do  you  remember  the  evening  we  took  the  park 
of  light  artillery  all  to  pieces,  and  dismounted  the 
guns,  and  run  the  wheels  in  all  directions,  and  threw 
the  linch  pins  into  the  river  ?  Old  Jas.  I.  Wacldell 
was  officer  in  charge.  (Jas.  I.  commanded  the  rebel 
Shenandoah  afterward  during  the  war.)  Wasn't  he 
mad  ?  McGonegal  said  that  it  was  lucky  for  him 
that  he  wasn't  in  charge,  or  he  would  have  been 
detached  from  the  academy,  sure. 

There  was  Nick  Stanton  and  Doolittle  who  roomed 
together.  Nick  jumped  out  of  the  second  story  of 
No.  3  building  one  evening,  because  he  would  not  be 
dared,  and  it  never  hurt  him  a  bit. 

PRESENCE    OF    MIND. 

There  were  two  fellows  in  No.  3  building  "  went 
on  French"  out  in  town  one  night,  and  got  full  of 
rum.  Well,  one  of  them  got  caught,  and  the  doctor 
came  down  and  gave  him  some  ammonia  that  sobered 
him  instantly,  and  the  other  fellow  said  that  was  a 
good  thing  to  have,  and  stole  the  bottle.  He  got 
caught  afterwards,  putting  bricks  in  the  guns  at 
light  artillery  drill,  just  to  see  'em  skip  across  the 
bay  to  the  detriment  of  passing  schooners. 


ON   A    MAX-OF-WAR.  245 

A   BETOBT. 

One  year  the  Wabash  came  there  with  Franklin 
Pierce  on  board,  and  a.  British  man-of-war,  the  Cura- 
coa,  to  take  Lord  Napier  home;  a  little  son  of  Lord 
Napier  said  to  a  young  midshipman  in  the  boat, 
going  off  to  the  ship, 

"  I  suppose  those  stripes  on  your  flag  are  the  ones 
you  put  on  the  backs  of  your  slaves,  ain't  they  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  said  the  middy,  "  and  those  are  the  stars 
we  made  you  see  at  Bunker  Hill." 

There  was  Jacobs,  W.  C.;  he  resigned  when  a  sec- 
ond class  man,  and  now  is  a  doctor  out  in  Ohio  with 
the  income  of  a  commodore. 

You  remember  old  DeBree,  first  lieutenant  of  the 
practice  ship  Plymouth? 

One  day  the  midshipmen  were  exercising  on  the 
fore  yard,  shrieking  and  making  an  awful  noise;  poor 
old  Simon  couldn't  hear  at  all,  but  he  thought,  by  the 
looks,  that  they  were  raising  thunder,  so  he  turned  to 
me  and  said  nervously, 

"  Ain't  they  talking  some  up  there  ?  " 

"  Yes,  sir,  particularly  in  the  slings," 
so  he  hailed  them  to  make  less  noise  in  the  slings. 

You  remember  Woodhull  Smith  Schenck  ?  Well, 
old  Schenck  went  out  to  Japan  after  he  resigned,  and 
is  now  a  rich  man. 

Jimmy  Tayloe  was  killed  on  board  the  rebel  ram 


246  ON   A  MAN-OF-WAK. 

Merrimae.     Bull  Carnes  commanded  a  rebel  howitzer 
battery  in  Tennessee. 

Averett  and  Dornin  were  on  board  the  privateer 
Florida.  Armstrong  was  on  the  Alabama. 

Savez  Read  was  the  pirate  of  the  Taconey  that 
cut  the  Caleb  Cashing  out  of  Portland,  and  after- 
ward ran  the  C.  H.  Webb  down  the  Mississippi. 
Read  was  leader  of  the  second  section  in  French, 
and  when  marching  to  recitation  used  to  look  back 
and  say, 

"  Catch  pied,  now  you  fellows," 
for  catch  step,  and  as  he  always  said, 

"  Savez  ?  " 

for  "do  you  understand?"  they  always  called  him 
Savez  Read. 

You  remember  how  ten  fellows  were  dismissed  for 
tarring  and  feathering  Foote,  of  my  class,  and  the 
midshipman  had  a  court  of  inquiry  to  find  out 
exactly  who  did  it  ? 

Tom  Fister,  of  Berks  County,  Penn;  he  seceded 
during  the  war,  had  been  bragging  of  how  much  he 
had  done,  until  he  found  that  they  were  to  be  pun- 
ished for  it  when  he  became  as  innocent  as  a  dove. 

Savez  Read  was  president  of  the  court,  and  he 
cross-examined  Tom  somewhat  as  follows: 

"  You  didn't  hang  out  of   your  window  for  two 

hours  with  a  d d  big  rope  with  a  running  noose 

in  it  to  catch  Foote  when  he  came  by  ?  " 


ON    A   MAN-OF-WAR.  247 

"  No,  sir." 

"  You  didn't  run  round  the  rear  of  building  No.  3 
with  a  pail  of  tar  crying,  '  Come  on  fellows,  we've 
got  him,'  did  you  ?  " 

"No,  sir,  I  was  only  running  down  to  the  gas 
house  to  see  what  they  was  going  to  do  with  him." 

The  evidence  being  too  strong,  Tom  was  convicted 
and  all  ten  were  dismissed.  They  went  up  to  Wash- 
ington, however,  and  after  being  the  lions  for  a  week, 
were  re-instated  in  their  own  class. 

You  know  Jug  M committed  suicide  out  in 

China.     Zimmerman  was  blown  up  in  the  Westfield 
off  Galveston. 

Charley  Swasey  was  killed  on  board  the  Scioto, 
and  there  is  only  half  a  dozen  left  out  of  a  class  that 
had  altogether  116  in  it.  Well,  twenty-two  years 
make  great  changes,  and,  my  boy,  we  are  getting 
along  in  years  though  we  don't  realize  it. 

Old  Don  Roget,  he  was  professor  of  Spanish; 
when  we  came  to  the  sentence  in  Ollendorf, 

"  Have  I  the  horse  that  you  have  ?  " 
each  class,  every  year,  used  to  insist  on  an  explana- 
tion, resulting  somewhat  as  follows: 

"  One  ting  cannot  be  in  two  places  at  the  same 
time,  except  it  be  a  bird  that  can  fly  very  quick;  two 
tings  cannot  be  in  the  same  place  at  the  same  time, 
unless  there  be  room  for  both  of  dose  tings;  two  per- 


248  ON    A    MAN-OF-WAK. 

sons  cannot  sit  in  the  same  chair,  at  the  same  time, 
unless  de  chair  be  wide  enough  for  both  of  dose  per- 
sons; true,  one  might  sit  in  de  oder's  lap,  but  dat  is 
not  it." 

"  You  will  now  proceed  after  de  explanation." 

He  hated  musk,  and  the  midshipmen  used  to  go  up 
with  high  standing  collars,  all  scented  with  musk, 
and  he  would  haVe  to  dismiss  the  class  and  air  the 
room. 

One  day  "  Savez  "  Read  carried  up  a  Lubin  bottle 
filled  with  sulphuretted  hydrogen,  and  while  vainly 
trying  to  get  the  glass  stopper  out,  he  dropped  it  on 
the  floor  and  it  rolled  to  the  middle  of  the  room; 
of  course  everybody  laughed.  Don  said, 

"Mr.  Read,  I  will  report  you  for  making  a  laugh." 

"  I  didn't  make  a  laugh." 

"  You  dropped  dat  bottle." 

"  Yes,  but  I  didn't  go  to  do  it." 

"  Did  you  drop  dat  bottle  to  make  a  laugh  or  did 
you  not  ?  " 

"I  did  not." 

"  Very  well,  I  will  report  somebody.  Mr.  Hoag 
I'll  report  you  because  you  laughed  first,  and  Mr. 
Schley,  I'll  report  you  because  you  laughed  loudest;  I 
am  never  tired  of  making  reports," 
and  he  did.  Pinkey  Hoag  turned  even  pinker  with 
restrained  laughter,  but  got  six  demerits  just  the 


OJN   A  MAN-OF-WAR.  249 

same.  He  told  Ned  Forber  that  thoae  French  poo- 
dles would  be  Creoles  if  born  in  the  United  States. 

I  never  shall  forget  Mug  Foster;  they  called  him 
Mug  because  he  always  had  a  sore  lip.  He  was  at 
the  academy  eighteen  months,  and  he  always  had  a 
boil  on  his  upper  lip  that  swelled  his  face  up  and 
made  him  unhappy.  He  roomed  with  Adj.  WLarton 
when  a  fourth  class  man.  Wharton  got  his  name 
from  Foster's  telling  how  he  used  to  make  him 
march  up  and  down  the  room  while  he  gave  the 
orders  as  he  would  if  he  were  adjutant, 

"  Fust  captains  to  the  front  and  centah  —  mawch." 

"Front," 

"RepawV 

"Posta," 

"Mawch." 

The  best  of  the  joke  was,  that  Wharton  was  both 
adjutant  and  subadjutant  of  first  and  second  class, 
being  a  very  smart  fellow,  and  would  have  been  a 
credit  to  the  service  if  he  had  not  chosen  to  go 
south  with  his  state.  Sardine  Graham,  S,,  was  a 
smart  fellow  too,  and  stood  two  in  the  class.  Old 
Sardine  is  a  clerk  of  court  in  Alabama,  I  think, 
with  seven  children  all  the  same  size. 

Do  you  remember  how  old  John  W used  to 

sneak  round  in  rubbers  to  catch  us  visiting  or  smok- 
ing ?  and  how  old  Billy  M skipped  upstairs  like 


250  ON   A   MAN-OF-WAB. 

any  midshipman,  and  then  came  down,  scooping  'em 
all  very  much,  like  any  officer  in  charge  ? 

They  used  to  say  that  John  Taylor  Wood  would 
come  into  a  building  and  tap  on  the  steam  pipes,  to 
indicate  an  officer  coming,  and  then  wait  for  a  few 
minutes  so  as  to  give  them  all  a  chance  to  be  ready 
for  inspection.  I  think  that  we  were  better  behaved 
for  being  treated  decently,  don't  you  ? 

Those  bugle  calls  to  recitation  and  study  hours,  I 
can  whistle  them  as  readily  as  I  could  twenty  years 
ago.  You  remember  how  some  of  our  class  spiked 
the  morning  gun  so  that  they  couldn't  fire  it  for 
reveille. 

Count  Segur  was  professor  of  fencing  and  draw- 
ing while  we  were  fourth  class, 

"  Get  on,  young  gentlemen,  get  on." 

I  used  to  get  him  talking  and  he  would  tell  stories 
and  draw  almost  all  of  my  picture.  What  stories  he 
used  to  tell,  and  how  he  used  to  exaggerate  them: 

"  Young  gentlemen,  one  day  I  was  riding  on  a 
mule  on  the  Isthmus  of  Panama,  and  had  stood  up 
in  order  to  make  a  sketch;  I  suddenly  caught  a  view 
of  both  oceans,  a  thing  never  before  seen,  I  was 
sketching  rapidly  when  my  mule  started,  and  I  was 
suspended  by  my  eyelids  over  a  frightful  precipice; 
I  never  lost  my  presence  of  mind,  however,  and  com- 
pleted my  sketch  before  I  came  down.  Get  on." 


ON    A    MAN-OF-WAR.  251 

I  remember  when  I  was  in  the  fourth  class,  that 
Lockwood,  who  was  professor  of  infantry  tactics, 
had  a  good  deal  of  trouble  in  teaching  us  the  first 
rudiments  of  the  drill.  He  knew  only  one  of  us  by- 
name, and  when  he  saw  a  fellow  inattentive  he  would 
promptly  call  out, 

"  Ha-a  re-e-port  Mr.  Spencer-a-a-inattentive  on 
drilL" 

"  My  name  isn't  Spencer,  sir." 

"  Oh,  a-ha  where  is  Mr.  Spencer," 
and  Spencer  was  looked  up  and  spotted  just  the  same. 

Poor  old  Bab,  he's  out  west  book-keeping,  for  some 
one  in  a  tobacco  house,  he  having  sympathized  on  the 
wrong  side  in  the  "  late  unpleasantness." 

Lockwood  was  professor  of  natural  philosophy 
when  I  was  in  the  first  class.  I  remember,  one  day,  he 
had  just  finished  an  experiment  for  the  first  section, 
when  the  second  section  came  in  (of  course,  I  was  in 
the  second  section,  there  being  but  two  in  the  class), 
and  I  quietly  took  the  wine-glass,  filled  with  spirits 
of  wine  and  covered  with  a  piece  of  bladder,  out  of 
the  bowl  of  water,  pricked  it  and  let  it  squirt  under 
the  table  without  Lockwood  seeing  me.  When  it 
came  time  to  exhibit  the  experiment  the  professor 
took  the  wine-glass  from  the  water,  and  commenced, 

"You-a-a-see  that  this  wine-glass  is  filled  with 
spirits  of  wine,  covered  with  bladder,  and  has  been 


252  ON   A   MAN-OF-WAR. 

immersed  in  water;  the  water  having  less  attraction 
for  the  bladder  than  the  spirits  of  wine,  it  will  force 
itself  into  the  glass  and  distend  the  bladder,  making 
the  surface  convex;  if  now  I  prick  the  bladder,  a  jet 
will  ensue." 

Well,  he  pricked  the  bladder,  and  there  was  no 
jet,  of  course.  Turning,  he  fixed  his  eye  on  me  and 
said  hesitatingly  and  angrily, 

"  Di-i-d  yo-o-ou  prick  tha-a-at  ? " 

"Yes,  sir." 

"  "Well,  I  wish  that  you  wouldn't  fool  with  these 
experiments  any  more.  Gentlemen  the  section  is 
dismissed." 

And  now  that  I  have  got  back  to  my  alma  mater, 
the  dear  old  academy  from  which  I  started  out  so  full 
of  life  and  hope,  seventeen  years  ago,  having  passed 
through  many  varied  and  exciting  scenes,  yet  accom- 
plishing so  little  of  what  I  had  hoped,  it  seems  fitting 
that  I  should  close  these  sketches  here.  To  those 
who  have  followed  me  through  them  all,  I  thank  you 
heartily;  pleased,  if  I  have  been  able  to  contribute 
to  your  amusement,  if  you  are  a  sailor,  or  if  I  have 
added  to  your  store  of  information  as  regards  a 
"  Man-of-War,"  if  a  landsman. 

To  those  who  would  be  critical,  I  ask  their  indul- 
gence, with  the  plea  that  I  never  wrote  a  book  before, 
and  I  will  never,  never  do  it  again. 


ON    A    MAN-OF-WAB.  253 

Since  1870,  when  I  retired  from  active  service,  the 
fashion  of  naval  things  has  changed  as  materially  as 
have  others.  A  Phonograph,  on  the  bridge,  will 
recite  the  orders  for  tacking  and  working  ship  with- 
out making  a  mistake,  and  never  turn  over  two  leaves 
at  once;  Torpedoes,  and  improved  Gatling  guns, 
Rams  and  sub-marine  engines  of  destruction,  have 
taken  the  place  of  the  weapons  with  which  I  am 
familiar;  and  should  adverse  fate,  and  the  order  of 
the  President,  send  me  once  more  to  sea,  I  should  not 
only  have  to  learn  much  that  is  new,  but  unlearn 
many  of  the  old-fashioned  notions  I  have  just 
imposed  upon  a  confiding  public — as  the  latest  out. 


